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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5410556" data-attributes="member: 16069">HS1 The Slaying StoneSession 4 Part 1The PCs are initially bottle-necked in the door of the chamber, the mud makes the floor Difficult Terrain, and yet the Mud Men move through the area with absolute ease- gliding to attack the PCs, and gliding away from the PCs when struck.The initial surge sees four of the minor Earth Elemental types appear- they deliver a little damage, Jeb again getting caught in the crush by multiple enemies, Rogar is elusive (and dangerous) leaping from Mud Man to Mud Man delivering kicks and punches. The bottle-neck is soon broken through- the Mud Men attempting desperately to prevent the PCs approach to the staff- in vain.Soon all four of the foul creatures are reduced to... Mud!The adventurers press on through the swill, as another pair of the creatures rise up from the mire. By this time Jeb and Neb have discerned that the staff over the far side of the chamber is the source of the ill here, they need to break down its magical defences to set things right. The staff is malfunctioning somehow, it swirls and twirls on the spot, at its base a slowly expanding portal to the plane of Elemental Chaos- hence the mud.There follows a Level 2 Complexity 2 Skill Challenge, this time instead of making it invisible I send the PCs a full explanation of what will happen should they fail the challenge- the tower will indeed fill with mud, and with each individual failure will unleash a tide of mud- damaging, pushing and knocking prone PCs in its path (see previous).I got the idea for the overt Skill Challenges after reading the Commentary on Pirate Cat's Campaign, found here-<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/242305-running-player-commentary-pcats-d-d-4th-edition-campaign.html" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/242305-running-player-commentary-pcats-d-d-4th-edition-campaign.html</a>One of the best reads on these boards, if not the best, although I'm only on page 50-something, having only discovered it three weeks ago. In fact this entire project (this thread) was started because of Sagiro & PCs (et al) posts there- imitation (albeit a poor attempt) is after all the sincerest form of flattery. Anyway, my Skill Challenges, as I say- posted to the players beforehand, were less well received- the general consensus was too much information was being given. I also prepared the Skill Challenge for the PCs to stay hidden and out of sight while they moved around Kiris/Gorizbadd (already posted here). I think there's good and bad in both methods, being overt with the skill challenges, I'd done the exact opposite previously- trying to blend them in to the action, the new method has allowed me to make the threat of failure more obvious- and, hopefully, increased the sense of danger, and the possibility of dramatic action. Previously, with the invisible skill challenges, although they seemed to work RAW, and at times were dramatic, they never seemed to have any real teeth. The players stated however that the more overt technique tended to remove some of the immersive aspects that are more conducive to role-playing.We've decided (by we, I mean I) to continue with the overt method, although I'm going to provide less information than I did with my first attempts (I posted the actual hand outs I sent to the PCs prior to this update). I do however want to see how well they work, and so will use the Pirate Cat method for the remainder of this adventure, I think. It's something different to try.Anyway, back to the here and now...The fight becomes quickly no contest, Neb takes a brief beating- he gets too close to the swirling staff and the Mud Man guarding it- however he's soon healed right back up by Drake. Rogar again is all action, balancing on a chest floating in the mud, he delivers a roundhouse kick and knocks the head off the second to last Mud Man.As I say, no contest, particularly as the Arcana Skill Checkers never falter, never miss a check- it's all soon over, with Neb grasping the magic staff after the portal finally vanishes.Just a note to say this was the PCs most dangerous fight to date, the Skill Challenge and 6x Mud Man (Level 2 Brutes), for a total of 1,000 XP, a Level 3 Encounter. In truth the Mud Man, when they hit, did a big chunk of damage- however they rolled atrociously (again my (maptools) dice suck).Some notes-I tried to bottle-neck the PCs at the beginning of the fight so that I could get some of the Mud Men flinging Mud Balls to Slow/Immobilise the PCs, I figured that's what the guardians would try to do- keep the PCs away.This tactic quickly came unstuck when I couldn't (again) roll anything over a ten, that and the fact that several of the PCs just dropped the bomb- very quickly I was down to two Mud Men and back-peddling furiously.The Skill Challenge required the PCs to use Standard Actions (Religion & Arcana) I thought this would (again) slow up the onslaught by preventing at least two of the PCs from getting off attacks- while this worked a treat it didn't stop the PCs.Even with another two Mud Men, and the threat of the Muddy Tide should the PCs fail their Skill Checks- the PCs made mincemeat of my bad guys, I've just been through the Chat Log from the session, they seem to have rolled 15+ on every attack they made.What was to be a (mini) climactic encounter worked well, and yet, the PCs barely broke sweat, only Neb ended the fight Bloodied- the Mud Men hit hard but mostly just missed their attacks.Neb discovers the item is a +1 Staff of Earthen Might, he will check the thing thoroughly at his next Extended Rest. The only other thing of note is the chest (trunk) that Rogar is balancing on, the thing is dragged to higher ground, out of the gunk, and examined- within is a mountain of paperwork. Which turns out to be mostly receipts and shopping lists, however there are a bunch of reports mixed in from people who worked here, and while most of the writing is in Common, there are some scribbled notes here and there in Draconic- not a language any of the PCs are able to translate.However one Comprehend Languages Ritual later and Neb is now very well-informed. Three workers, of note, there were others; were employed in this place-Treona, the PCs patron, the Ritualist in the Tower.Dreus, a Magic Item Crafter, who at some point did something bad (unspecified bad- the worst sort of bad, this section is written in Draconic).Tyristys, the head of the organisation, his notes don't give much away, although he seems to have been keeping a close watch on Dreus, his reports and notes are all in Draconic.More to the mystery it seems.The above, that is the sections beneath the Kiris Library, were ripped from 'Stick in the Mud', a Chaos Scar adventure found in Dungeon magazine here-<a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/duad/20091007" target="_blank">Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Stick in the Mud)</a>I don't intend to use the Chaos Scar campaign area (at least I have no plans to as of yet), I do intend to use what I can from any resource (particularly other bought scenarios) whenever I can. Obviously I bend things to make them fit. Still, a very nice series of encounters, the Bullywugs seemed to not deliver on the damage front- although I had terrible luck with my rolls.I wanted to get a bit of backstory going with Treona and the others, this is the start of a larger plot, I thought Stick in the Mud would do to ground the story and start the PCs investigation.That was the PCs 7th encounter, including Skill Challenges, we're getting into the swing of things, the game is playing very well, and after our chat after last weeks session, is only getting better.NOTE- PLEASE REMEMBER MY PLAYERS ARE STILL IN-GAME, IF YOU HAVE READ THE SCENARIO THEN PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THE GAME AWAY.Next time... Back up top.</blockquote>

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