Another session! This time with the Monk over Skype, which actually worked pretty well. She could see the battle map / tokens / minis, and told us how she wanted to move, but it didn't add too much time. We ended up playing for about 7½ hours, so a pretty good length session. Play report:
[sblock]Again, I started the session by giving everyone a minor quest. The Warpriest had "Make significant progress towards stopping the Winter Shard from being abused." The Monk had "Avenge the fallen Monks of Kord." The Fighter had "Defend your friends, no matter the cost." Finally, the Wizard had "Practice unconventional magic (rituals, using the Arcana skill in inventive ways, etc.)." Lastly, I also gave them their first open major quest: "Stop the plot of the white dragon, Bazzalth."
After handing the quests out, I stressed that all of these were optional; following them would gain experience for the entire group, but if they wanted to do something else, they could. I made sure each person knew they could ignore their quest if they wanted to, as I really don't want to cross into involuntary railroad territory. I think after we wrap up the dragon arc, I'm going to stop using minor quests every session, and I'm going to let them choose some of their own quests. I'm not quite there yet, but giving them quests at the beginning of each session has been a really big boon in guiding play for these sessions, making their actions a lot more predictable, and letting my preparation pay off.
Anyways, play: The party had just dealt with another infernal test, and were debating what to do next. They wanted to find Bazzalth and the Winter Shard (to complete the quest that the monastery of Kord had sent them on). After talking things over and checking the area, they decided to follow tracks that the Wizard found (successful Nature check). They debated between tracking down the direction that the kobold assassin came from or tracking the direction that the cavern raiding party had gone, and decided on the latter. The Wizard and Warpriest kept on eye on the magical trail they left (though that slowly faded as they went), and they knew that there were traces of cold, necrotic, and necromancy magic, so the Wizard prepared a defense against cold (through her familiar). With that, they took off.
The trip took two days, and then they started a climb up the mountain. The tracks split into two groups (one of about a dozen, and one of five) heading different directions up the mountain, and they decided to follow the group of five (all five were about six feet tall, give or take). They made their way out the mountain while following the tracks, and eventually spotted a tunnel up ahead. After a few skill rolls (Arcana, History, Dungeoneering), they determined that tunnel was built by frost giants, and had a sort of mundane ice magic built into the walls, which the Genasi Wizard (and native of the Elemental Chaos) recognized. The frost giants that built this tunnel had crossed over from the Elemental Chaos, and they had imbued the stone of the tunnel with cold, which would resonate when they passed through, keeping them cold. The Wizard was able to determine that the walls had not resonated in such a way in over a century, so the PCs were hopeful that there was no frost giants ahead (save for the dwarven Fighter, who is looking to redeem his name, and wants to fight some giants!).
They pushed on through the tunnel, and came into the courtyard of a giant (literally) fortress-like structure. They didn't see anyone, and it was quiet, but the Wizard could tell that this, too, was built by frost giants for frost giants. She was also able to tell that this wasn't a temporary outpost; no, the frost giants had made this place their home. However, there didn't appear to be any frost giants here now, which troubled them, as they wondered what could have pushed frost giants out of their home. They suspected Bazzalth, the white dragon, which made them reconsider continuing on.
They did continue on, though. They found a large door, and the Fighter was able to push it open enough for the party to move through. They found a hallway, with a crossroads about halfway down. Directly ahead were two large iron doors with non-magical script on it (it was in giant, and they couldn't read it). To the left was a hallway leading to a door, and the hallway to the right narrowed down to normal humanoid-sized, with a door at the end.
They decided to inspect the door directly ahead. They looped a rope through the handles of a door, but they couldn't budge it (with an Athletics check). The dwarf hoisted the gnome Monk up, and she found out it was locked. She messed with the lock (successful Thievery) so that she could see through to the other side, and she saw five kobolds standing around (one that was in full plate, and one that had a crackling orb in his hand). She then silently unlocked the door without making much noise (successful Thievery at a Hard DC), and was lowered down. The Fighter then tried opening it again with the others aiding him, but didn't succeed, and the check made a lot of noise. The Monk was hoisted up to peek through again, and saw that three kobolds were missing, and the other two were talking and eyeing the door (but didn't notice her).
The party discussed what they should do, and the Wizard determined that the kobolds must have a way in besides the giant door. Since the passageway to the right narrowed down, she figured that the path that direction might lead them to the kobolds in a roundabout fashion. The dwarf suggested they head that way, so that he could fight them in a narrow hallway if they encountered them, and the party started down that corridor. They made their way to a normal-sized door, and the dwarf through it open, with his hammer and shield at the ready, in case there were kobolds.
There weren't kobolds. Inside, the room was incredibly icy, and there were five orcs that were leisurely looking over. One was in robes, but the others were all in scale armor, with longswords and javelins. The party showed some restraint, and the Wizard decided to talk first. She asked if they could understand common, and the orc in robes replied "I understand your tongue, genasi" in primordial. A long conversation followed between the robed orc and the Wizard, and he seemed to continually mock her lightly, poking fun at her for not being brave. They pieced together that the orcs were working with Bazzalth, but not much more, and eventually the conversation broke down, and initiative was rolled.
The fight was interesting. I told them about their ability to make a Moderate Acrobatics check to move at full speed (though failure by 5 would mean they would fall prone in the first square), or else they'd move at half speed. I also told them I'd let them make a Moderate Acrobatics to make a charge attack at full speed +2 (provided they moved at least 4 squares) and add +5 damage, though failure at all would mean that they would slide four squares in a straight line, fall prone, and lose their attack. Soon into the fight, they also learned that the floor was magically enchanted, and that if they didn't move at least two squares, they'd gain vulnerability 5 cold until their next turn; they tried to circumvent this (the Monk did successfully by hopping on tables and chairs in the room), but they realized that it's easy to provoke opportunity attacks if they moved around to avoid the vulnerability.
The orc was an ice mage (level 5 elite controller), and could conjure an ice wall that they could hack through (recharge power), and he used it pretty effectively; he basically took the Warpriest out of the fight about halfway through, blocking him away from the others, and the Warpriest kept failing Acrobatics checks to hurry to them, and falling prone (he fell three times). The four orcs were level 5 standard soldiers, so they had high ACs, but once one went down, the rest were low, and they started falling over pretty close together. They dealt damage plus 1d6 cold damage on a hit, so this really made them dangerous when attacking those who didn't move away from them (because of the cold vulnerability).
Though the players won, they ended with the Warpriest, Monk, Fighter, and Bard (an NPC with them) all in the single digits. They also kept the orc ice mage alive, for now, though the Wizard wanted him dead because she didn't like him, and the Warpriest wanted him dead because he was marked to die by The Raven Queen. After healing up, the Fighter had used 6 healing surges, and the others had all used some, too, so the Wizard used a ritual to reassign everyone's healing surges. They interrogated the orc, and he seemed eager to die. He wasn't helpful (unsuccessful Diplomacy and Intimidate checks), and he eventually threatened to kill The Raven Queen in the afterlife if he saw her, which prompted the Warpriest of The Raven Queen to grab one of the longswords and stab him in the heart.
The party talked about whether to wait for the kobolds or not, but decided to go through a door they found. It led to another corridor, which had open windows. They could see that the weather had incredibly bad, and were able to determine that it wasn't natural how quickly it formed, though the weather itself was natural. The Wizard pieced together that the energy of the weather matched the same type energy of she had seen in the Earth Shard in the caverns (tied to the Elemental Chaos), and they assumed that the weather had been caused by the Winter Shard. The Wizard also noticed that the weather had a signature that was similar to traces they had sensed on the orcs they had just killed (who also had a tie to the Elemental Chaos). They wondered if they had caused this, but pressed on rather than focusing on it too much.
They found themselves going up some giant-sized stairs, and ended up at a large door, with a smaller, human-sized door built into it. The Wizard noticed that it had been added after the fact. They listened, didn't hear much, and then opened the door. Inside was an orc woman standing adjacent to a portal to the Shadowfell (the Warprist could sense the presence of Vecna radiating from the portal), and there were five orc zombies in the room, along with three rotting frost giant corpses, and a huge pile of humanoid corpses. They could tell that the orc necromancer was controlling the portal, attempting to summon out undead creatures, and that if she was killed, the portal would go out of control (like from their first session, and my first report). She called for them to enter, but they decided to attack, and we rolled initiative.
After drawing the map, I also laid out my Skill Challenge sheet (which has the rules for them to reference, as well as the place where I keep the dice). I incorporated a skill challenge (complexity 3, so 8 successes before 3 failures) into the combat, running it and keeping track of it while we played the combat out. The Wizard could make Arcana checks to attempt to control the portal (Moderate to learn about the portal's current state and deal 1d6+4 necrotic damage to one creature present, or a Hard check to control and reverse the necrotic energies and deal 1d10+4 radiant damage to one creature present, and it would gain vulnerable 5 radiant [save ends]). The Warpriest could perform those checks (he's trained in Arcana), but he could also perform Religion checks: Moderate Religion to suppress the overwhelming Evil presence coming from the portal, and deal 1d6+4 radiant damage to one creature present and knock it prone, or a Hard Religion to flood the portal with the presence of The Raven Queen, dealing 1d10+4 radiant damage to one creature present and dazing it (save ends). All of these checks were a move action, with successes or failures adding or subtracting from the skill challenge.
The players had some fun with the combat, too! The necromancer immediately called for help, and one of the frost giant corpses rose to fight (the necromancer ranted about it being her "masterpiece" during the combat). The necromancer was a level 5 elite artillery, and was pretty effective at hurting them (she could place 3 ongoing necrotic damage on them as a group and grant them 5 vulnerability to it, and this really wracked up some damage). The frost giant was a level 5 elite brute, and he dished out some nice damage and took a beating. The Warpriest eventually used a couple encounter powers (action point) + attacked the undead giant through the portal, smiting him (Smite Undead) and knocking him into the pile of corpses (which was on fire thanks to the Wizard which was trying to burn them right from the start to keep minions from being summoned, which was just a guess on her part), setting him aflame.
Though the party got pretty messed up, it wasn't as bad as the first fight, and the Wizard took down the zombie frost giant (her new Arc Lightning power!) and the necromancer (successful Hard Arcana check to blast the necromancer through the Shadowfell portal). By the end of the combat, though, they still needed five successes in the skill challenge, and had one failures (on the first failure, during combat, I let the Warpriest decide his failure, as he could control the energy of the portal somewhat even though he failed: heal all the enemies and give some temporary hit points, or everyone loses 1 healing surge; he chose the first option, though the second failure triggered the healing surges later on, though the reversed it mid-combat with advantage and a Hard Arcana check). The party quickly teamed up to get the five successes they needed: the dwarf Fighter ran to the portal to absorb as much necrotic energy as he could manage (blocking with his shield and dwarven armor) (successful Endurance), with the Warpriest making sure he could handle the energy (successful Heal). The Wizard and Bard tried to get the portal to collapse (successful Arcana checks), while the Monk tried to "disable" the portal again, like she did the first time (or she would a magic trap) (successful Thievery). This team effort got them the five successes they needed, and the skill challenge ended very quickly after our combat was over.
The party rested for a bit, and they scanned for magic. They sensed a piece of magic on a bookshelf (which were lining this room, but the books were all made for frost giants). They found a single sheet of human-sized paper, and inspected it. Nobody could see anything on the paper except for the Warpriest, who could read it with a Religion check. He rolled a natural 1, and I described the words growing fuzzy and fading away. He didn't like the result, so he asked if he could spend a daily (Holy Cleansing) to clear his head, and I let him (automatic success), so the words faded back in, and he was able to read them. I gave him a sheet with the magic item: Book of Five Truths (the First Truth), which is an alternative reward that gives him a +2 bonus to Insight / Perception. I told the players about the Dawn War (they seemed to like the background cosmology stuff), and how these truths were hidden. The Warpriest got the strong feeling that The Raven Queen wanted him to find these truths and keep them away from Vecna, and he pulled the Wizard off to the side and told her about this privately (she's a worshiper of Ioun, and solidly on his side in fighting against Vecna).
They took a short rest, and the Wizard looked around for any frost giant books on the Elemental Chaos, the layout of the keep, their history, or the Winter Shard. One natural 20 on her Perception to search later, and she had a lot of information! The frost giants hadn't been here in about 120 years, when they had been driven out by adventurers with the help of the Winter Shard. They had done some research into defeating it, but they couldn't do it, and eventually it was able to push them all back to the Elemental Chaos (the players were relieved that Bazzalth hadn't driven them out). They got the layout, and now suspect (correctly) that the white dragon's lair is beyond the front door (that they failed to open), and that Yone and the Winter Shard are up on a raised platform down the other path.
They also learned that the Winter Shard was likely responsible for the terrible winter weather, and that it was likely affecting a 50-mile radius area around the Shard. The area will remain perpetually winter, which the Warpriest wants to stop for The Raven Queen, while the others want to stop because they feel responsible. Apparently for this to happen, the Shard needs a sacrifice of those attuned to it, and the Wizard suspects that the five orcs caused the winter weather to appear when the players killed the orcs.
Lastly, they found the journal of the necromancer they had killed. She had been working somewhat with Vecna, and had plans for the First Truth, but hadn't done anything with it yet, though she knew Vecna wanted all of the Truths. Also, they knew that the necromancer was working with Bazzalth, but they learned that she was a young white dragon (the player of the Warpriest -the most experienced player- seemed quite relieved, though he's still pretty hesitant to act against it), and that she was smarter and more ambitious than normal, which is why she has the winter plot, rather than waiting until she's older.
The players were discussing what to do (they wanted to go defeat Yone and save the Winter Shard before fighting the white dragon, so that they could hopefully enlist the Winter Spirit Guardian for the fight), but they heard footsteps coming up. They remained quiet, but soon they heard 5-6 people stop outside, and a deep, smooth, feminine voice starting talking to them from the other side of the door. It wanted to know who they were, and how the necromancer was doing (the gnome used Ghost Sound to attempt to fool the voice by mimicking the voice of the necromancer, but it didn't work).
The door was suddenly splintered near the top, and they saw the clubbed tail of what appeared to be a white dragon. The tail disappeared and the dragon's eye appeared, looking into the room (the PCs and the Bard scattered, just in case there was dragon breath). It commented that there was only five of them, but that they had magical items on them. The players were confused as to why the dragon said that, but then they heard Bazzalth order the "chieftain" to obtain the magic items for her hoard. The human-sized door was busted in by the dragon's tail, and the kobolds started to rush in. We called the session here.[/sblock]
All told, my players had a lot of fun, and were very vocal about that, which is a good sign. The Warpriest talked to me about the skill challenge, but not in a "here's my feedback" sort of way, but more of a "this part stuck out" and "I liked this part" sort of way (he liked that there were reliable effects he could use, and that the DCs didn't increase for using the same skill on those effects multiple times).
A lot of the time was taken up for the party talking to each other, talking to the first orc, or learning (about frost giants, the Elemental Chaos, the Dawn War, the Winter Shard, white dragons, etc.). The players are adaptable, and they're getting the hang of the tight combat mechanics + loose skill system that seems to make up 4e. I'm trying to get them to come up with inventive things to do (see my quest to the Wizard), and encourage them to do so by rewarding ideas they come up with.
The first combat took a bit longer than the others, but it had 4 standards and an elite, while the second had five minions (and two elites). The first combat also had us adjusting to Skype, though, so there's that. And they still have the Bard with them, which also slows combat down some (though the player of the Warpriest still likes him around for the extra healing powers).
Next session should be fun, and the pressure should be high. They'll be attacked by 5 kobolds (weakening them up before the white dragon encounter), and they're running low on surges (the Bard is out, and the Wizard only has 2 left, though from there it's 4, 5, or 6 surges). I love pressure in my games, and 4e is pretty good at letting me put pressure on them. Looking forward to getting to do that next session. If anyone has any comments / advice, always happy to hear it. Thanks for indulging me
