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Message: <blockquote data-quote="limeskeleton" data-source="post: 9604800" data-attributes="member: 7047820">Session 05: The Road to WinterhavenPC Retcon: The player for Lou, the dragonborn cleric, asked to retcon his character's deity to be Kord, given the way he's been playing the character. So now we have two devotees of Kord and one of Gruumsh in the party, so I expect most problems to be settled with action rather than words!After some consideration, the party decided that locking up Kharla Garvin with the Fallcrest Guard was the best course of action. For their trouble, Lord Faren Markelhay (or more likely, his steward) sent the party prepaid vouchers to acquire horses down at the Fallcrest Stables. After picking up their four mounts and a wagon, they set off toward Winterhaven, with both Juniper Swiftwater and Parle Cranewing in tow.[SPOILER="Companions"]I really wanted to encourage the use of companion characters and hirelings in this campaign! The players seem to be enjoying it so far, although we all suffer from the common D&D issue of forgetting about them from time to time. Probably an area of improvement for me as a GM![/SPOILER]They made camp on a tree-covered hilltop in the Moon Hills, sheltered from the rain by the boughs above and a rite of Kord. There, they found time for discussion, passing a wineskin around as they warmed their bones by the fire.[SPOILER="Perilous Journey"]I wanted travel to feel difficult and dangerous to reinforce the 'Points of Light' setting conceit, which encourages small pockets of civilization surrounded by deadly wilderness. I stole a really excellent mechanical framework from Manbearcat's <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/failure-stakes-for-a-travel-skill-challenge.656923/post-7562551" target="_blank">post in this thread</a>. Essentially, travel is represented via a collection of Complexity 1 skill challenges, one for each day of the journey. This allows for small setbacks (from a failed check) and more severe ones (from a failed challenge). It also gives loads of XP, which is a nice payoff as well.As I recall, they only failed 1 or 2 checks out of the 20+ rolls they made. Their characters have solid skills and they're clever enough to justify their best skills, which refreshed after each SC. Moving forward, I might up the DCs and make it cost resources (perhaps a Healing Surge) to 'replenish' the +5 Training bonus during the journey. [/SPOILER]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Henry spoke of Dragon's Day, a grand celebration in Hammerfast, and of the time he was given the honor of holding the puppet-dragon's head during the parade.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lou talked about his draconic breath weapon, which is naturally a blast of frost, but has been blessed by Kord to grant him a burst of radiant energy instead. The angelic choir reminded everyone of an ancient poem, which Parle recognized as a Nerathi hymn.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Forte discussed his time as a sellsword, specifically when he worked for the Gravelstoke Family, who ordered him and his band to rough up the denizens of a poorhouse. Forte refused and parted ways on bad terms, although he still remembers Ilikan, a skinny goliath with a remarkable intellect, fondly.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lou discussed his peaceful upbringing in Fallcrest, although it was tinged with a bit of melancholy thanks to his rocky relationship with the Purchase Clan these days.</li> </ul>The next day, while gathering herbs and tubers in a nearby grove, the party was suddenly ambushed by a Clan Bloodpsear scouting party. Henry quickly recognized their regalia and chants, which marked them as particularly zealous followers of Gruumsh. As grenadiers rained fire on them from above, the party entered into melee with the berserkers of the clan.Henry felled several attackers with a burst of angelic might, but the Krull in charge of the group struck back just as hard. After exchanging taunts with Forte, he managed to strike him down, then followed through by gouging out Forte's eye as an offering, performing the same rite Henry did on the Five-Arch Bridge days before.However, Lou managed to get Forte back on his feet, with Juniper applying a small blessing to heal the ragged wound where his eye once was. Subsequently, the party cowed the remaining orcs into submission, establishing their might and demanding tribute for their victory. [SPOILER="Combat/SC"]This ended up being an extremely close call for Forte! Roll20 defaults to rolling everything out in the open, so the tension was pretty high when the Grenadier dropped a fire bomb with a dying Forte in the blast. However, Kord must've been watching out for him that day, as I rolled a natural 1 and managed to miss him entirely! Impressing/Intimidating was a nested skill challenge within the combat, with successes accrued both by defeating key enemies and through the use of relevant skill checks. For example, henry made a solid Religion check to quote relevant Gruumsh scriptures to convince the raiders to back down in the face of a superior foe.[/SPOILER]In exchange for their lives and freedom, the orcs taught Forte a secret technique passed down by their clan known as the Iron Hand Anvil Breaker (Grandmaster Training alternative Reward!). Forte then implanted his old eye, although it remains blind (despite looking super cool). He also took a trophy from the Krull--the blade of the raider's glaive.Days later, after a particularly harrowing journey through the spirit-haunted, muddy hills of the Gardbury Downs, the party arrived in Winterhaven, ready to face down the Reborn Flame.[HR][/HR]Overall, I was quite proud of how this session played out. The players were engaged throughout, even though most of the session was travel-focused, which I count as a huge win for any edition of D&D. I also got some good reactions from the combat encounter, which featured all sorts of interesting challenging/hindering terrains to keep things dynamic. I think they're starting to get a better understanding of the system too, which helps keep the flow going.The big thing I want to work toward is a level of mechanical/system fluency where I can improvise combats, SCs, etc more fully without issue. Obviously a virtual tabletop makes this a little more difficult, but I think it's reasonable regardless once I master the various levers and cogs involved with making Story Now 4e sing.</blockquote>

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