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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 8284901" data-attributes="member: 11">We are nearly caught up to the present.BTW, each of these posts represents the number of encounters before I awarded XP. So despite being two different "adventures" (a Dungeon mag sidetrek and "Salvage Operation" from Ghosts of Saltmarsh), it represents all the encounters btwn two XP awards (though not necessarily level advancement).The Whale (from Dungeon Magazine #32 1992)<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>24</td><td>Knight (1), Scout (1), Guards (5)</td><td>4/4</td><td>3, 1/8, 1/2</td><td>Deadly*</td></tr></table>Notes: This is another weird one and represents my aim to create situations the PCs encounter that they decide how to handle without my having a set goal or solution in mind. In this case, on their way to a place called Brackwater Styes to catch the ship to take them on their next adventure they stumble upon two rival groups arguing over a huge beached whale that represents a huge boon for each of their communities. One group is a bunch of commoner fisherman, accompanied by a young capable veteran and a village priestess. There are 12 of them total. The other group are the ones listed above that the PCs decided were bullies and routed, which the commoners then joined in the fighting seeing they had powerful allies. In the end, one person on either side died (not a PC) and the warrior types fled to be the plot of potential future adventure to come.  As such, the "deadly" rating doesn't work because the PCs had 12 (mostly ineffectual) allies! I guess I should list their CRs and difficulty as well.<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Priestess (1), Veteran (1), Fishermen (10)</td><td>4/4</td><td>1/4, 2, 0</td><td>Hard</td></tr></table>Clearly even with CR 0, straight up numbers advantage pushes an encounter difficulty up precipitously.Salvage Operation (from Ghosts of Saltmarsh)<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>25</td><td>Ettercap (1), Giant Spider (2), Swarm of Spiders (1)</td><td>3/4</td><td>2, 1, 1/2</td><td>Deadly</td></tr><tr><td>26</td><td>Tiefling Druid (1), Giant Spiders (2), Phase Spider (1)</td><td>4/4</td><td>2, 1, 3</td><td>Deadly</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Ettercap, Giant Wolf Spiders (2)</td><td>4/4</td><td>2, 1/4</td><td>Medium</td></tr><tr><td>28</td><td>Maw Demons (4)</td><td>4/4</td><td>1</td><td>Hard</td></tr><tr><td>29</td><td>Ghouls (6)</td><td>4/4</td><td>1</td><td>Deadly</td></tr></table>Notes: So for the first encounter, the party druid was in octopus form finding another way into the hulk of the foundering ship. He actually encountered the four of the six ghouls in the bilge by himself! But got away unspotted in his animal form to catch up with the party half way through Encounter #26. I inadvertently made encounter #26 even deadlier by making the druid in the adventure a tiefling (and thus some of those abilities) and gave her a magic sword that struck for poison and a scarab that protects against poison (the party's tiefling ranger now uses these). The maw demon fight felt more like "Medium." The ghoul battle was indeed very difficult. The adventure originally called for four ghasts, but a future adventure I am running focuses on troglodytes and I hate that nothing really differentiates their stench powers, so four ghasts became 6 ghouls (at some point down the line I will change what a ghast's stench power does). Another interesting point, was that the PCs took the tiefling prisoner, stablizing her and tying her up (not knowing she could wildshape) and when they left her out in the hall to deal with the demons in a cabin, she got away. Three PCs did almost die on this adventure, but two due near drowning when the ship began to sink and they were caught below, not from monsters.I forgot to mention, a critical hit followed up by a roll of max. damage from the barbarian took out that phase spider in two rounds.Edit: Also forgot to mention that the party took no rests between these encounters. They considered a short rest before dealing with the ghouls, but were concerned about the tiefling's escape and the potential for the ship to start sinking.</blockquote>

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