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Message: <blockquote data-quote="limeskeleton" data-source="post: 9573921" data-attributes="member: 7047820">Thank you so much! This made my day.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />[HR][/HR]Session 04: Success at LastContinuing their victorious momentum, the party made quick work of the demons remaining in the Fallcrest Catacombs, sanctifying Elsinore's ritual circle to boot. Perhaps their earlier defeat was just a prelude to this greater victory! In the aftermath, Torinn and Vezera allowed them to take what they wished from the area, including a new set of armor for Lou. The Peaceblade Clan also rewarded them with a hefty sum of gold in thanks for rescuing the twins and for ridding the catacombs of dangerous monsters.[SPOILER="Combat Encounter"]As aforementioned, this was a pretty powerful upward beat, despite the difficulty of the encounter mathematically. They were rolling hot, and that momentum carried over into this session. The end of a climactic battle allowed for the distribution of a pretty heavy treasure parcel, of course, which was another nice upward beat to get the players excited.[/SPOILER]After a night's sleep, the group set out to track down Kharla Garvin, the Gray Company mage who had been paying mercenaries to steal Nerathi artifacts. Henry was familiar with the organization, knowing them to be authoritarian bullies with delusions of grandeur, using the banner of a long-fallen empire to lend their actions legitimacy. Before long, they found a group of thugs antagonizing Parle Cranewing, a scholar of ancient Nerath. They managed to scare off the thugs, extract Kharla's location (The Lucky Gnome Taphouse), and bless Parle's poor luck with a prayer to Avandra. In the aftermath, Parle ran into his cousin, Carle Cranewing, who gave away an old set of enchanted chainmail in thanks for rescuing his cousin's life.[SPOILER="Skill Challenge"]This was a fun encounter series! Tracking down Kharla was a skill challenge, of course, and the above was handled purely through that lens. I had considered transitioning to combat, but the party was rolling quite well and clearly didn't want to escalate to violence, so it made sense to have the enemies back off rather than attack.The Nerathi connection from the Gray Company and their interest in artifacts made for a perfect means of introducing Parle, who is himself connected closely to Winterhaven and the Keep on the Shadowfell, which ties into Forte's backstory. More on that later![/SPOILER]Finally, the party made their way to the Lucky Gnome. They kicked down the door and immediately began attacking Kharla and her bodyguard, Aegis, alongside the various pissed-off bargoers. In the chaos, the bartender, a cantankerous man named Rollo, was caught in the crossfire and killed. After a close call from a powerful thunder spell from Kharla, the group was victorious, killing and driving off the others and capturing Kharla for interrogation.[SPOILER="Combat Encounter"]I was particularly proud of this combat encounter's design. We had Kharla, her warforged bodyguard Aegis (the warforged tie-in will allow for introducing plots related to them attempting to find a Creation Forge later), and some various street toughs paid off by her. The bartender was a "trap," hurling mugs at anyone who got too close, with a rider effect of buffing bargoer damage if defeated (Nobody messes with the guy who pours the drinks!). There was also some fun terrain in the form of spilled drinks, a smashed jar of pickled eggs, and a couple fireplaces to shove enemies into.[/SPOILER][HR][/HR]All told, I think this session went very well. Lots of great scenes, the players drove the direction of those scenes and made their goals clear, and everyone had a load of fun. We finished up session 5 this past weekend, so I'll have that one typed up soon enough as well. As always, happy to hear thoughts & feedback!</blockquote>

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