After introducing (or reintroducing in some cases) my group of friends to 3e D&D with a couple 1st Level Adventures to get them familiar with the rules (and get them up to 2nd level), I've introduced them to the War of the Burning Sky. The party consists of:
Human 2nd Level Fighter
Human 2nd Level Paladin
Human 2nd Level Sorcerer
Dwarf 1st level Fighter / 1st Level Cleric
Elven 2nd Level Scout
All characters are 28 point builds. Equipment was standard at this point, with a few potions of cure light wounds, and a master work weapon or two in the party from previous adventures. There was one item that surprisingly came in handy in this adventure.
The Beginning
The party headed to the rendevous with Torrent. She quickly explained the mission, and the party asked few questions, eager to get on with the mission and out of the city. As the bells quited, the party heard the creaking upstairs and quickly took up positions. The Fighter behind the bar with his Heavy Crossbow ready (he's a tank, but took rapid reload for blasting away). The Paladin covered him, while the Dwarf moved toward the door. The Elf and Torrent guarded the Sorcerer in the back of the room.
Before they could move to investigate the noise upstairs, the thugs broke the door down (natural 20) and tried to storm into the room. The Dwarf standing by the doorway slowed them down (the wanted to avoid AoO). One was dropped with a well placed crossbow shoot from the Fighter, the Elf fired and missed, and the others guarded against the unexpected (Paladin and Torrent).
Then the Bomb hit The building burst into flame and the Rogues come tumbling down the stairs (literarlly ), right next to the parties two biggest fighters The rogues attempted to engage them, while the thugs at the doorway attempt to push their way in. Another one was dropped by the dwarf.
At this point, the Sorcerer decides to make a break for it, and leaves his two guards as he runs for the side door (his inititative was higher than both of them). He opens the door, to the fangs of an attack dog. The dog surprisingly misses it's strike against the sorcerer as does one of the thugs. In fact in the confusion, one of the thugs hit the dog (natural 1 in tight quarter fighting)!
The fight at the front door and the bar continued, with a rogue and thug being dropped. At this point, the sorcerer has had enough and preped color spray. The dog takes an attack of opportunity and hits! But the sorcerer had combat casting, and enough points in concentration to complete the spell, and the two thugs and the dog are quickly unconcious.
At this point, the Elf and Torrent sweep past the sorcerer and out the alley. Their they find Kathor. Kathor seeing his men cut down at the door and the alleyway, calls on the remaining troops to surrender. The party quickly leaves the burning building, not looking back.
Through the City
The party attempts to get to the next location, but the panic in the city causes them numerous delays. At one point they needed to rescue someone from a tall burning building. The party was quickly thinking of what to do, when the fighter say "I'll get out the Spider Silk Net from the last adventure". Everyone looks at him and thinks that's a great plan. Of course previously they had derided him for carrying the silly thing around
Trip to the Bank
Having safely survived the chaos in the city, the party reached they're first objective. Entering the building to meet their contact, they are confused when their contact calls them by the wrong name. Rather than play along and find out what's going on, they call his bluff. He quickly retreats upstairs, in a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts, taking one hit, before escaping out the door. The party follows, but is hindered by the spell on the door and his ally. The enemy quickly climbs to the roof to make his escape, while his ally continually misses the party with his attacks. The enemy attempts to make his escape, but a combination of bad luck (his enhanced jump roll failed miserably, single digits on a d20), and then as he feather falled, the fighter got a Critical Hit with his Heavy Crossbow (even while under the fear affect) . Needless to say no prisoner to question, but plenty of loot.
With the enemy defeated, the party discovers their original contact and are given a clue on where to find the case.
Back to School
The party takes off to the Magic School that the case might be at. But as they travel, an enemy Wyervn Rider crashs on the roof of a nearby building. He quickly climbs down and runs off, with the party in hot pursuit. The discover a path of dead civilians before they finally catch up with him. He gets one hit on the Fighter, before the Paladin and Sorcerer take him out in a combination of Magic Missile and sword swings. The Paladin quickly claims his heavy armor (after cleaning it and removing some insignia).
Having reached the school, the party talks to one of the students their. After a lengthy discussion, they discover who must be leading the effort to get the case. They make a plan to storm her room and capture her, figuring a single wizard wouldn't be that tough. Given that she was fifth level, one would assume that assumption wrong . But as usual, the party gets lucky (or the DM was just very unlucky!) and she fails her concentration check on her first spell, and is quickly grappled and overpowered! The ally that escaped the previous encounter is again worthless, constantly missing the party
With the next piece of the puzzle secured, the party continues after the case (now augmented by a few more scrolls and potions).
The party finally discovers the location of the case, but can't deciper the lock. Unfortunately, the Paladin does set off the trap before the Scout can look for it. He makes his saves and is unaffected by the poison, but the residents are now ready for the party. Help comes in the form of an invisible imp, who agrees to tell the party the secret of the lock in exchange for the case. The party makes the deal, offering him the case, but NOT the contents.
With the door open, the party storms the building, and quickly defeats the inhabitants. The Scout is a bit upset fighting Elves, especially after the deal the party has made about the case. The elves are tended and the case is opened (via a scroll recovered earlier). The imp appears and laughing manically grabs the case and disappears.
At this point the party is suspicious of Torrent, given the contents of the case and the appearance of the imp and having to fight elves and their good allies. However, the Paladin doesn't detect any evil, so convinces the party that if someone is using the party as a Cat's Paw, they're using Torrent too.
Given the parties condition, they decide to retire to a safe house and recover before attempting to flee the city.
Comments
The party has enjoyed the pace of the adventure. The appearance of some non-evil creatures as opponents has given them a lot to think on. The higher level encounters (EL4 and 5), haven't been too challenging, due to a combination of luck on their part and LOUSY rolls on the DMs part! There hasn't been one Critical Threat against the party, and numerous single digit attack rolls, against the parties multiple Critical Hits and many successful hits at opportune times (like the casting Wizard).
Given the parties previous adventures, they are almost 3rd at the half way point, but given they wont have a chance now to level up before the end of the adventure, that shouldn't be a problem. Given how they've gotten through the adventure so far, I'm not too concerned about the two higher level encounters at the end.
The one error I did note was that the Shealis tactics indicated she would use flaming sphere, but her spell list didn't have that spell. Instead it had still magic missile. No problem, since she never got to use either one.
Everyone can't wait for next installment of this, and the follow on adventures, so congradulations to the authors.
Human 2nd Level Fighter
Human 2nd Level Paladin
Human 2nd Level Sorcerer
Dwarf 1st level Fighter / 1st Level Cleric
Elven 2nd Level Scout
All characters are 28 point builds. Equipment was standard at this point, with a few potions of cure light wounds, and a master work weapon or two in the party from previous adventures. There was one item that surprisingly came in handy in this adventure.
The Beginning
The party headed to the rendevous with Torrent. She quickly explained the mission, and the party asked few questions, eager to get on with the mission and out of the city. As the bells quited, the party heard the creaking upstairs and quickly took up positions. The Fighter behind the bar with his Heavy Crossbow ready (he's a tank, but took rapid reload for blasting away). The Paladin covered him, while the Dwarf moved toward the door. The Elf and Torrent guarded the Sorcerer in the back of the room.
Before they could move to investigate the noise upstairs, the thugs broke the door down (natural 20) and tried to storm into the room. The Dwarf standing by the doorway slowed them down (the wanted to avoid AoO). One was dropped with a well placed crossbow shoot from the Fighter, the Elf fired and missed, and the others guarded against the unexpected (Paladin and Torrent).
Then the Bomb hit The building burst into flame and the Rogues come tumbling down the stairs (literarlly ), right next to the parties two biggest fighters The rogues attempted to engage them, while the thugs at the doorway attempt to push their way in. Another one was dropped by the dwarf.
At this point, the Sorcerer decides to make a break for it, and leaves his two guards as he runs for the side door (his inititative was higher than both of them). He opens the door, to the fangs of an attack dog. The dog surprisingly misses it's strike against the sorcerer as does one of the thugs. In fact in the confusion, one of the thugs hit the dog (natural 1 in tight quarter fighting)!
The fight at the front door and the bar continued, with a rogue and thug being dropped. At this point, the sorcerer has had enough and preped color spray. The dog takes an attack of opportunity and hits! But the sorcerer had combat casting, and enough points in concentration to complete the spell, and the two thugs and the dog are quickly unconcious.
At this point, the Elf and Torrent sweep past the sorcerer and out the alley. Their they find Kathor. Kathor seeing his men cut down at the door and the alleyway, calls on the remaining troops to surrender. The party quickly leaves the burning building, not looking back.
Through the City
The party attempts to get to the next location, but the panic in the city causes them numerous delays. At one point they needed to rescue someone from a tall burning building. The party was quickly thinking of what to do, when the fighter say "I'll get out the Spider Silk Net from the last adventure". Everyone looks at him and thinks that's a great plan. Of course previously they had derided him for carrying the silly thing around
Trip to the Bank
Having safely survived the chaos in the city, the party reached they're first objective. Entering the building to meet their contact, they are confused when their contact calls them by the wrong name. Rather than play along and find out what's going on, they call his bluff. He quickly retreats upstairs, in a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts, taking one hit, before escaping out the door. The party follows, but is hindered by the spell on the door and his ally. The enemy quickly climbs to the roof to make his escape, while his ally continually misses the party with his attacks. The enemy attempts to make his escape, but a combination of bad luck (his enhanced jump roll failed miserably, single digits on a d20), and then as he feather falled, the fighter got a Critical Hit with his Heavy Crossbow (even while under the fear affect) . Needless to say no prisoner to question, but plenty of loot.
With the enemy defeated, the party discovers their original contact and are given a clue on where to find the case.
Back to School
The party takes off to the Magic School that the case might be at. But as they travel, an enemy Wyervn Rider crashs on the roof of a nearby building. He quickly climbs down and runs off, with the party in hot pursuit. The discover a path of dead civilians before they finally catch up with him. He gets one hit on the Fighter, before the Paladin and Sorcerer take him out in a combination of Magic Missile and sword swings. The Paladin quickly claims his heavy armor (after cleaning it and removing some insignia).
Having reached the school, the party talks to one of the students their. After a lengthy discussion, they discover who must be leading the effort to get the case. They make a plan to storm her room and capture her, figuring a single wizard wouldn't be that tough. Given that she was fifth level, one would assume that assumption wrong . But as usual, the party gets lucky (or the DM was just very unlucky!) and she fails her concentration check on her first spell, and is quickly grappled and overpowered! The ally that escaped the previous encounter is again worthless, constantly missing the party
With the next piece of the puzzle secured, the party continues after the case (now augmented by a few more scrolls and potions).
The party finally discovers the location of the case, but can't deciper the lock. Unfortunately, the Paladin does set off the trap before the Scout can look for it. He makes his saves and is unaffected by the poison, but the residents are now ready for the party. Help comes in the form of an invisible imp, who agrees to tell the party the secret of the lock in exchange for the case. The party makes the deal, offering him the case, but NOT the contents.
With the door open, the party storms the building, and quickly defeats the inhabitants. The Scout is a bit upset fighting Elves, especially after the deal the party has made about the case. The elves are tended and the case is opened (via a scroll recovered earlier). The imp appears and laughing manically grabs the case and disappears.
At this point the party is suspicious of Torrent, given the contents of the case and the appearance of the imp and having to fight elves and their good allies. However, the Paladin doesn't detect any evil, so convinces the party that if someone is using the party as a Cat's Paw, they're using Torrent too.
Given the parties condition, they decide to retire to a safe house and recover before attempting to flee the city.
Comments
The party has enjoyed the pace of the adventure. The appearance of some non-evil creatures as opponents has given them a lot to think on. The higher level encounters (EL4 and 5), haven't been too challenging, due to a combination of luck on their part and LOUSY rolls on the DMs part! There hasn't been one Critical Threat against the party, and numerous single digit attack rolls, against the parties multiple Critical Hits and many successful hits at opportune times (like the casting Wizard).
Given the parties previous adventures, they are almost 3rd at the half way point, but given they wont have a chance now to level up before the end of the adventure, that shouldn't be a problem. Given how they've gotten through the adventure so far, I'm not too concerned about the two higher level encounters at the end.
The one error I did note was that the Shealis tactics indicated she would use flaming sphere, but her spell list didn't have that spell. Instead it had still magic missile. No problem, since she never got to use either one.
Everyone can't wait for next installment of this, and the follow on adventures, so congradulations to the authors.