JollyDoc's Rise of the Runelords...Updated 12/22

[LordVyreth]

Sunday Night Teaser:

1) Rico gets a new animal companion after his brief (1 day) period of mourning.

2) The group meets the goblin king and gets schooled in goblin diplomacy

3) Randall finds his affliction the butt of unending abuse at the hands of the very un-politically correct Skud

4) Rico discovers that not all dogs want to play nice

5) Luther finds inner peace...much to the consternation of his companions.

Huh, I had guessed the horse would be his companion. He showed up in a way that just felt like the animal version of "Oh, we just lost a party member and we're in the middle of a dungeon, so he can't just show up in town...I know, the party finds a prisoner!"

 

[Abciximab]

Boy those Critical Fumble cards are rough. How do you handle the fumble? Do they have to confirm a miss (like confirming a crit) or do they get some kind of save (+BAB)? Or is it roll a one, pick a card?

 

[JollyDoc]

Awesome writeup, JD! It sounds like they're having a pretty rough time so far - nice one!

As for Luthar - is that a Vow of Peace coming up? I almost begged a player not to go that route in the Savage Tide I had no idea how to run it properly - it felt like everyone in the area became some sort of hippy! And I didn't have time to rewrite the whole thing

Yes, Vow of Peace reared its ugly head. I'm still toying with how to describe its effects, especially around Skud, since barbarians aren't allowed to rage within its radius. To be fair, though, the first time it came into play very likely saved the whole party, as you will see.

 

[JollyDoc]

Huh, I had guessed the horse would be his companion. He showed up in a way that just felt like the animal version of "Oh, we just lost a party member and we're in the middle of a dungeon, so he can't just show up in town...I know, the party finds a prisoner!"

It was a fortunate coincidence, although Shadowmist was actually in teh adventure as written. The coincidence was that a) there was a druid in the party and b) his animal companion just happened to but it at the right time.

Actually, Rico has decided to go with the Nature's Bond druid ability now (as outlined in PFRPG), but taking the Animal domain allows him to still have an animal companion, it just advances more slowly.

 

[JollyDoc]

Boy those Critical Fumble cards are rough. How do you handle the fumble? Do they have to confirm a miss (like confirming a crit) or do they get some kind of save (+BAB)? Or is it roll a one, pick a card?

The deck actually comes with rulels. You do have to "confirm" the miss, by missing again after you roll the nat. 1. Also, you can only crit fumble once per encounter, unlike crit hit, which can happen repeatedly (much to any DM's delight!).

 

[JollyDoc]

Just a brief note to say there will not be a regular update this weekend, as the group will not be meeting this Sunday, so I'll be taking a bit longer to get the latest update posted. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Neverwinter Knight]

Just a brief note to say there will not be a regular update this weekend, as the group will not be meeting this Sunday, so I'll be taking a bit longer to get the latest update posted. Thanks for your patience.

That's cool.

BTW: Randall Deschaine? I'm surprised you allowed a PC by that name, JollyDoc. Sounds like Dark Tower blasphemy to me

 

[JollyDoc]

That's cool.

BTW: Randall Deschaine? I'm surprised you allowed a PC by that name, JollyDoc. Sounds like Dark Tower blasphemy to me

Yeah, I know. My Kingisms are showing. If you like that one, though, comb your brain and see if you know where Dexter St. Jacques came from...

 

[WarEagleMage]

Randall is not the only name in the group with a literary nod. See if you can spot the other...

 

[SolitonMan]

TPK by druid

Well, our own group didn't fare quite so well in RotRL. We had four characters (wizard, fighter, rogue and cleric) and so played the module as written using the Pathfinder RPG rules.

While the group was happy with the new rules and used them quite well for the most part, they let their egos get the best of them. After defeatiing Tsuto in the glassworks, finding Erylium's lair and eventually beating her (by having the fighter pin her and everyone else beat on her) and tracking the plotters to Thistletop, they completely underestimated the goblin druid Gogmurt. They encountered the refugee goblins initially, and managed to kill eight of the ten there before the noise attracted the druid. Entangle followed, after which it was a bit of a cat and mouse game to find who had started the entangle. Once melee was engaged, Gogmurt's superior mobility, coupled with the -4 to hit and AC the players received, tipped the battle mostly in his favor. Although the players could have retreated several times, they all expressed a desire to finish off the pesky druid and therefore remained in the tactically unsound situation, waiting with readied actions instead of fleeing and regrouping in better terrain.

So, TPK for this crew...although the wizard's raven familiar DID survive, and might be able to return to Sandpoint and enlist help from Quink (a friend of the wizard) or Hemlock. But for now we're going to let it lie, and try out the 4e rules. I'm not 100% for or against them yet, but I want to give them an honest try and see what I think.

I will keep following along here, in any case, since I'm sure it'll be a blast! Good luck to everyone involved!!