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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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<blockquote data-quote="Mrpereira" data-source="post: 6725615" data-attributes="member: 6781484"><p><strong>Chapter one – act 3</strong></p><p><strong>January 1 late afternoon/early evening</strong></p><p></p><p>Together with Torrent the group went down to the Barracks and played out the scene as written in the book with one difference. Councilman Menash wanted to send his own liaison to Seaquen, so the group was joined by a young officer by the name of Ciano. </p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I decided that it probably wouldn’t hurt for them to have another sword on the road, and if things turned out being easy, another death on the road to Seaquen. Also I felt it added to the credibility of why the councilman would help the players, as they were helping him in turn.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p>As the players leave the city chimes and bells start ringing all over town. In the Resistance it is the signal for enemy detected in town. In other words it can only mean that the city council have agreed to the Ragesian demands and have let the inquisitors enter town. Luckily for the players they are close to the exit at the other end of town and get out clean. The only tense moment for them was when the city guards started questioning the troop about the strange time to leave the town. It was both evening and snowing after all. In the end the signed orders from the councilman got them out; orders are orders after all.</p><p></p><p>After a short while the group of soldiers and players reach a tower ruin and spend the night inside. </p><p></p><p><strong>Chapter one – act 4</strong></p><p><strong>January 2</strong></p><p></p><p>The next morning the group said goodbye to the soldiers and headed out towards the burning forest, which should allow them to get away clean from pursuit .After three hours they arrive at a point where the sides at the road seemed a little steeper. Their spot checks were successful and most of the party spotted the first two Black Horse mercenaries, spoiling a big part of the ambush.</p><p>The two scouts tried to get the ambush going by spooking the horses with thunderstones, but it never really went their way. Killian was the only one in a little trouble caused by his spooked horse. Ciano managed to get the killing blow on Renard, who didn’t put up much of a fight.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: DMs in our group roll our dice openly – and Renard just had one of those days where they did not roll his way.</em></p><p></p><p>As Renard fell, Kathor Danava rode up on his horse calling the rest of the mercenaries off. This time the players did talk a bit with him and got his name. They did take note of his name being the same as that of one of the generals</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: This was one of the instances where the assignments paid off. I had filled out the names of a lot of people they knew of before starting the game, essentially making sure that the information from the handbook and commonly known knowledge was listed. It made keeping it updated much easier for the players.</em></p><p></p><p>They reached an agreement with Kathor, and the group rode off without further incident. It also meant that they never got to search the bodies or the camp site of the mercenaries.</p><p></p><p><strong>Chapter one act 5: </strong></p><p><strong>January 2 - continued</strong></p><p></p><p>The party rides on, and meets Crystin half a mile outside the burning forest. Her weird behavior put them on the edge to begin with. They didn’t really trust her, but decided to see how it would play out and went with her,</p><p></p><p>Before going inside she tells them about her visions and that she would like them to convince her father to go with them to safety. Once inside they were witness to Crystin getting shouted at by her father, and he took his temper out on the bandits (the players) too. </p><p></p><p>DM Note: Before this act I was actually a bit worried about how it would play out. I feared that the players would feel that Haddin/Crystin would be an annoyance and the whole scene a bit awkward and poor. </p><p></p><p>I was wrong! Haddin has turned out to be such a wonderful fun character for me – and the group, but oh how they hate him. I am pretty sure that they would take a detour on the way to saving the world, just to get him down<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" />. </p><p></p><p><em>I had prepared a few sentences based on what I was pretty sure the players would bring up, meaning his reactions to their questions/comments were extremely rude, loud and snappy. For instance, as they enter the house he gives a long speech, finishing off with telling them to behave themselves and keep quiet. I was sure someone would try to be polite and introduce themselves, which resulted in him responding in an aggressive tone: “I did NOT ask for your name, I TOLD you to behave yourselv and keep QUIET. Can’t you see that I am reading, or is that a concept that is too complex for you to understand?” </em></p><p></p><p>They ended up feeling pretty sad for Crystin, but gave up on helping her dad; he obviously didn’t want to be helped. They spent the night there, in a pretty funny and awkward situation. </p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: At one point, Galion crossed the line. He kept talking to Haddin, and when he could get away with it Haddin dominated Galion. I made the domination quite loose, and just told him to behave and speak nicely! Galion turned this into a quite fun domination. He decided that the character felt that the others obviously misunderstood the nice Mister Ja Laffa, and treated him with such an air of respect and good manners, that I decided that Haddin actually liked him. Haddin managed to keep his domination all the way until they reached Seaquen. The party decided that they really had no grounds to think that Galion was acting out of character, they didn’t really know him after all (they were strangers at the beginning of the chapter after all).</em></p><p></p><p>During the evening, after Haddin and Crystin have gone to bed, Shaith tell the other players about the tragic story of Haddin Ja Laffa. This actually gave them a feeling of sympathy for him, for a while at least.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Shaith has high knowledge skills and also has his background from Gabal’s school, so I let him roll for knowledge to see if he knew of him. With all the good background information in the campaign, I have decided to allow the players to know most of it, if they make successful knowledge checks (DC will be varying of course).</em></p><p></p><p><strong>January 3</strong></p><p></p><p>During a breakfast that is spent mostly in silence, they suddenly hear someone call for Haddin. They realise that Crystin’s vision about the Ragesian coming here has come true. Haddin of course blame them for bringing the Ragesians to his door.</p><p></p><p>The fight had a casualty. Ciano opened the backdoor and sneaked out, planning to circle the enemies with along with Galion and Shaith. However, he did not get far, as he was hit and killed by the human bane arrow fired by one of the goblins.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I had the players taking control of Ciano and Torrent during the fights, so his death was not scripted. In general I have the players controlling most of the npcs in the party. A few years ago we made some basic rules for how party NPCs would be controlled. They never take the initiative in a conversation or start actions like combat. They rarely move further ahead than where the foremost PC is standing. They roll spot, listen, hide and move silently so their result always matches the poorest result of the party (or what is considered a 1 on the d20 if they can’t get that low). Also we agree on how they would act in general, so most combats etc. go smoothly. If the player controlling the NPC is in doubt of what he/she would do we talk it over and decide what makes most sense, with the DM allowed to veto if something seems wrong to him. In this case it did make sense to let Ciano(who was a fighter) take point, as he was leading a wizard and an archer out of the house.</em></p><p></p><p>During the fight Haddin uses his domination on a goblin, which both makes the party see him as way above their level and also gives some credit to the story of his brother. Afterwards they were actually talking about the story of his brother. They were unsure about what caused the death of Haddin’s brother. Did he order his brother to defend him?</p><p></p><p>During the fight the Ragesians threw torches at the house which caught on fire and burned down, meaning that Haddin and Crystin no longer had any choice, but had to leave. The players tried to argue that the Ragesians had come for Haddin, just as Crystin had said, and that he ought to be grateful, as they had helped save them. </p><p></p><p>Haddin did not agree. He told them that if one should be grateful to those who led an enemy to your door and that enemy also burned down your house… then yes, he was VERY grateful. Otherwise, he would just blame them for the loss of his home and his safety.</p><p></p><p>After this the party and the NPCs gather what they can, and head off towards the fiery forest.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: They levelled up on the half mile walk to the forest. Day three – and leveling up day three, a reasonable progression as they called it <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> The session didn’t end here, but I will break off the post here and start a new for chapter two at some point, soon I hope.</em></p><p></p><p><em>End of Chapter musings:</em></p><p><em>The chapter went very well from my perspective. The backstory was so detailed that it was easy for the players to just jump into the action and still feeling at home in Gate Pass and the world setting. In my game the scene with the imp was a real highlight. It was well written and it was a perfect way to teach the players that in this campaign setting it is more a matter of friend or foe, rather than good or evil. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>One thing that I would say did not work very well was the Black Horse mercenaries. In act one, they meet Kathan, but with the city burning down around them they have no incentive to find him, unless he asks them too – and he did not. I liked his backstory and I hope it will be possible to get it woven in when he reappears in the story. In act three were they are ambushed, the whole ambush set up seemed odd to me, and I changed it to a more straightforward ambush. A final thing, and this is in general so far in the story, the inquisitor really isn’t very well protected, especially considering that he is priest and has all the time in the world to prepare for the fight. Given the size of the chapter, I would say that these were really small issues, and easily remedied.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>All in all I was pretty pleased with the chapter and how it all played out. </em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mrpereira, post: 6725615, member: 6781484"] [B]Chapter one – act 3 January 1 late afternoon/early evening[/B] Together with Torrent the group went down to the Barracks and played out the scene as written in the book with one difference. Councilman Menash wanted to send his own liaison to Seaquen, so the group was joined by a young officer by the name of Ciano. [I]DM note: I decided that it probably wouldn’t hurt for them to have another sword on the road, and if things turned out being easy, another death on the road to Seaquen. Also I felt it added to the credibility of why the councilman would help the players, as they were helping him in turn. [/I] As the players leave the city chimes and bells start ringing all over town. In the Resistance it is the signal for enemy detected in town. In other words it can only mean that the city council have agreed to the Ragesian demands and have let the inquisitors enter town. Luckily for the players they are close to the exit at the other end of town and get out clean. The only tense moment for them was when the city guards started questioning the troop about the strange time to leave the town. It was both evening and snowing after all. In the end the signed orders from the councilman got them out; orders are orders after all. After a short while the group of soldiers and players reach a tower ruin and spend the night inside. [B]Chapter one – act 4 January 2[/B] The next morning the group said goodbye to the soldiers and headed out towards the burning forest, which should allow them to get away clean from pursuit .After three hours they arrive at a point where the sides at the road seemed a little steeper. Their spot checks were successful and most of the party spotted the first two Black Horse mercenaries, spoiling a big part of the ambush. The two scouts tried to get the ambush going by spooking the horses with thunderstones, but it never really went their way. Killian was the only one in a little trouble caused by his spooked horse. Ciano managed to get the killing blow on Renard, who didn’t put up much of a fight. [I]DM note: DMs in our group roll our dice openly – and Renard just had one of those days where they did not roll his way.[/I] As Renard fell, Kathor Danava rode up on his horse calling the rest of the mercenaries off. This time the players did talk a bit with him and got his name. They did take note of his name being the same as that of one of the generals [I]DM note: This was one of the instances where the assignments paid off. I had filled out the names of a lot of people they knew of before starting the game, essentially making sure that the information from the handbook and commonly known knowledge was listed. It made keeping it updated much easier for the players.[/I] They reached an agreement with Kathor, and the group rode off without further incident. It also meant that they never got to search the bodies or the camp site of the mercenaries. [B]Chapter one act 5: January 2 - continued[/B] The party rides on, and meets Crystin half a mile outside the burning forest. Her weird behavior put them on the edge to begin with. They didn’t really trust her, but decided to see how it would play out and went with her, Before going inside she tells them about her visions and that she would like them to convince her father to go with them to safety. Once inside they were witness to Crystin getting shouted at by her father, and he took his temper out on the bandits (the players) too. DM Note: Before this act I was actually a bit worried about how it would play out. I feared that the players would feel that Haddin/Crystin would be an annoyance and the whole scene a bit awkward and poor. I was wrong! Haddin has turned out to be such a wonderful fun character for me – and the group, but oh how they hate him. I am pretty sure that they would take a detour on the way to saving the world, just to get him down:cool:. [I]I had prepared a few sentences based on what I was pretty sure the players would bring up, meaning his reactions to their questions/comments were extremely rude, loud and snappy. For instance, as they enter the house he gives a long speech, finishing off with telling them to behave themselves and keep quiet. I was sure someone would try to be polite and introduce themselves, which resulted in him responding in an aggressive tone: “I did NOT ask for your name, I TOLD you to behave yourselv and keep QUIET. Can’t you see that I am reading, or is that a concept that is too complex for you to understand?” [/I] They ended up feeling pretty sad for Crystin, but gave up on helping her dad; he obviously didn’t want to be helped. They spent the night there, in a pretty funny and awkward situation. [I]DM Note: At one point, Galion crossed the line. He kept talking to Haddin, and when he could get away with it Haddin dominated Galion. I made the domination quite loose, and just told him to behave and speak nicely! Galion turned this into a quite fun domination. He decided that the character felt that the others obviously misunderstood the nice Mister Ja Laffa, and treated him with such an air of respect and good manners, that I decided that Haddin actually liked him. Haddin managed to keep his domination all the way until they reached Seaquen. The party decided that they really had no grounds to think that Galion was acting out of character, they didn’t really know him after all (they were strangers at the beginning of the chapter after all).[/I] During the evening, after Haddin and Crystin have gone to bed, Shaith tell the other players about the tragic story of Haddin Ja Laffa. This actually gave them a feeling of sympathy for him, for a while at least. [I]DM note: Shaith has high knowledge skills and also has his background from Gabal’s school, so I let him roll for knowledge to see if he knew of him. With all the good background information in the campaign, I have decided to allow the players to know most of it, if they make successful knowledge checks (DC will be varying of course).[/I] [B]January 3[/B] During a breakfast that is spent mostly in silence, they suddenly hear someone call for Haddin. They realise that Crystin’s vision about the Ragesian coming here has come true. Haddin of course blame them for bringing the Ragesians to his door. The fight had a casualty. Ciano opened the backdoor and sneaked out, planning to circle the enemies with along with Galion and Shaith. However, he did not get far, as he was hit and killed by the human bane arrow fired by one of the goblins. [I]DM Note: I had the players taking control of Ciano and Torrent during the fights, so his death was not scripted. In general I have the players controlling most of the npcs in the party. A few years ago we made some basic rules for how party NPCs would be controlled. They never take the initiative in a conversation or start actions like combat. They rarely move further ahead than where the foremost PC is standing. They roll spot, listen, hide and move silently so their result always matches the poorest result of the party (or what is considered a 1 on the d20 if they can’t get that low). Also we agree on how they would act in general, so most combats etc. go smoothly. If the player controlling the NPC is in doubt of what he/she would do we talk it over and decide what makes most sense, with the DM allowed to veto if something seems wrong to him. In this case it did make sense to let Ciano(who was a fighter) take point, as he was leading a wizard and an archer out of the house.[/I] During the fight Haddin uses his domination on a goblin, which both makes the party see him as way above their level and also gives some credit to the story of his brother. Afterwards they were actually talking about the story of his brother. They were unsure about what caused the death of Haddin’s brother. Did he order his brother to defend him? During the fight the Ragesians threw torches at the house which caught on fire and burned down, meaning that Haddin and Crystin no longer had any choice, but had to leave. The players tried to argue that the Ragesians had come for Haddin, just as Crystin had said, and that he ought to be grateful, as they had helped save them. Haddin did not agree. He told them that if one should be grateful to those who led an enemy to your door and that enemy also burned down your house… then yes, he was VERY grateful. Otherwise, he would just blame them for the loss of his home and his safety. After this the party and the NPCs gather what they can, and head off towards the fiery forest. [I]DM note: They levelled up on the half mile walk to the forest. Day three – and leveling up day three, a reasonable progression as they called it :) The session didn’t end here, but I will break off the post here and start a new for chapter two at some point, soon I hope.[/I] [I]End of Chapter musings: The chapter went very well from my perspective. The backstory was so detailed that it was easy for the players to just jump into the action and still feeling at home in Gate Pass and the world setting. In my game the scene with the imp was a real highlight. It was well written and it was a perfect way to teach the players that in this campaign setting it is more a matter of friend or foe, rather than good or evil. One thing that I would say did not work very well was the Black Horse mercenaries. In act one, they meet Kathan, but with the city burning down around them they have no incentive to find him, unless he asks them too – and he did not. I liked his backstory and I hope it will be possible to get it woven in when he reappears in the story. In act three were they are ambushed, the whole ambush set up seemed odd to me, and I changed it to a more straightforward ambush. A final thing, and this is in general so far in the story, the inquisitor really isn’t very well protected, especially considering that he is priest and has all the time in the world to prepare for the fight. Given the size of the chapter, I would say that these were really small issues, and easily remedied. All in all I was pretty pleased with the chapter and how it all played out. [/I] [/QUOTE]
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