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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5423110" data-attributes="member: 78116">Eberron: Dark Prohecy I had to go walkies in the morning for key supplies and got unfortunately rather delayed before the game - losing a bit of the session. Pro tip for aspiring DMs: Make sure you have your delicious snacks and drinks ahead of time! This means you don't get caught out on an early morning walkies and miss some of the game! In any event DnD was had and shenanigans abounded: Pretty much as usual in fact.In any event the game got underway with the PCs finding a route through the webbed town to investigate the source of the noise. This did only come about after some careful deliberation about just burning down the web and the village with it. Inevitably they found the source of the yelling - an elderly gentleman standing outside his tiled house fending off numerous hungry giant spiders. Curiously the fellow was not trying to use his spells to harm them, merely keep them back while "talking" to the creatures. Trying to explain rather diplomatically that the spiders shouldn't try to eat him as he was their "friend".Of course it was obvious that the spiders had other ideas, with several of the stealthy critters having already moved around behind him. Charitable as the PCs are they moved into combat to help deal with the spiders - in a slightly more violent manner. Things proceeded fairly well, clearing out the majority minion spiders with relative ease. Even the deathjump spiders that had plagued them in the past didn't prove to be as dangerous - despite jumping from the roof. In a slightly ironic twist, the elderly man went down as the minion spiderlings felled him with bites combined with vulnerability.<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/GryllGoesDown.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Gryll the "spider expert" got quite a nasty surprise here. The PCs were more than in control of the situation and were able to rescue him before an unsightly death. He explained to the PCs he was trying to force the creatures back and had never known them to be so hostile. Naturally the characters told him about the fact the spiders were controlled, which caused Gryll to remember that he had indeed seen a woman with the beasts. After a short conversation explaining what was going on, Gryll suggested further survivors may be at the mayor Arden Galen's house. Gryll regretted that he had 'confiscated' the mayors main weapon, a magical flaming halberd in fear of destroying the entire town*. As the PCs had saved them Gryll had no problem handing over the weapon, several vials of alchemists fire and some potions of his own concoction "Gryll's Amazing Arachnid Damaway!" Aside from having a strange name, this item has two important points in the game. If you read the previous session write up, you'll see the PCs got firmly hammered and many of them are very down on surges. Although an extended rest would be perfectly fine at this point in the game, I wanted to keep a bit of pace up for a short while. I also wanted options for regaining surges when the PCs advanced to the next area to regain surges. Like the previous "tonics", these potions restore 2 surges but they have another powerful benefit: They automatically end effects ongoing upon the PC that have the poison keyword. You might think this is something more than worth hanging onto if possible, but like many things I made sure they had only a specific utility. Gryll carefully developed his serum to interact with the injuries and poisons of arachnids. Unless you're damaged by such an arachnid it doesn't function. The point of this is both a fluff and again, mechanics reason. This part of the game has a lot of arachnid enemies, so allowing these to be used only when damaged by an arachnid (since your last extended rest it should be noted) means it keeps it very useful here - but rapidly means they become useless later. Effectively it means it keeps the adventure flowing and gives the PCs some extra surges, without actually becoming a problem if they are saved up later into the campaign. Either way the players decided to just hang onto them for the time being and moved on, marching through the town to reach mayor Arden's home (and hopefully further survivors). On the way the PCs ran into something genuinely horrifying in the town's central square. Almost entirely webbed over, numerous disfigured and disgusting web bound humanoid creatures rose up. These were the unfortunate victims of a terrible monstrous spider called a tomb spider, which turns the dead into walking corpses filled with a nasty surprise: A swarm of deadly spiderlings. Here is where a bit of planning from the items I gave the party comes into play. This encounter was pretty difficult but it could become even more difficult if the zombies were not killed in the correct way. Each one not killed by a fire keyword power would immediately burst like an overripe balloon - spilling numerous spiderlings out. The spiderling swarm is not only more powerful than the zombie (a level 2 brute vs. a level 5 lurker swarm), but imposes considerably better effects and an aura. The zombies however were incompetent fighters, having no ability to make OAs or even charge (due to lacking a melee basic attack). So good use of the PCs flaming halberd (suitable for the Paladin defender), the alchemists fire and the Artificers chaos engine weapons powers could make all the difference. To cap off the encounter was the tomb spider itself, which I actually changed quite dramatically to fit more of a lurker role with a couple of new powers. Instead of the powerful ongoing damage, I added straight dice to damage for the bite, added another alternative bite attack and a potential jump attack (similar to the deathjump spider). Although he could not attack twice a round as a dedicated elite could, the spider made up for it by being able to front load damage effectively. The pounce attack for example knocks a target prone and then automatically hits it with the bite attack. Combat began with the rogue staying back and throwing a dagger, being cautious about the zombies - while the Warforged assassin plowed into one. The critical hit smashing the creature to pieces, but then releasing the swarm of biting and deadly spiders into the fight! With the jig up on the purpose of these rotting undead husks, the PCs realized they would need to finish them off with fire or risk further swarms appearing. By the end of the first round, everything looked well under control until the tomb spider parent joined in. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/TombSpiderSurprise.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The tomb spider bound into combat, knocking the paladin prone and then inflicting an extremely painful bite. A second enfeebling bite then put the paladin into an awkward position. The tomb spider was a considerable threat with its bite preventing the use of an opponents second wind for that encounter. Additionally I copied the black dragons heal check removal power for a secondary enfeebling bite attack. Should the power hit, the unlucky PC ends up with a -2 penalty to speed and vulnerable 5 necrotic until the end of the encounter (or a successful heal check as a standard action, ouch!). Unfortunately for the paladin, the spiders initial jump slammed into him successfully and he got automatically bitten. Fortunately for the paladin, when it rolled for damage the hit was a critical! This is fortunate because the attack was an automatic hit, so couldn't get the massive 25 damage from the crit. The spider was forced to settle for a more measly 17 points of damage. It made up for it with enfeebling bite, imposing the conditions above and dropping the paladin unconscious. Now the fight just got real. The zombies continued to present little threat, while the swarm pursued and damaged other PCs. Inevitably, the tomb spider cornered the artificer and provoking an opportunity attack (with little other choice - hemmed into a corner with a zombie nearby) the spider bit him down. This left the combat in a delicate position! <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/DeadlyGame.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The artificer was pinned against the wall and made a risky attack, which unfortunately for him didn't come off. However with the paladin up and not interested in further spider or zombie based shenanigans, he rapidly finished off the tomb spider (with a sigh of relief from the other players). With the vile beast dead the situation was still precarious. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/DelicatePosition.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The tomb spider was dead but the zombies were still up and about. However several things were firmly in the PCs favor. The first was that the zombies were mostly badly damaged - so a solid hit from any fire power or a vial of alchemists fire would finish them off. The second thing was that I made the zombies have the clumsy property - so they had no melee basic attack. This meant the PCs could walk around them with impunity and quickly feed potions to their allies. Even when the rogue was clunked unconscious by a brutal critical hit (wasn't far off being killed either!), the PCs didn't have to worry much about moving away from the creatures. Using the ability of his weapon and the paladins flaming halberd, the PCs finished the remaining zombies off without further swarm incidents - albeit ending the combat in a very hammered state. Due to several players needing (or wanting, I hear there was FOOTBALL?! in the US that day) to leave early we ended it there. Some interesting times lay ahead I feel, but once again I am incredibly happy to have another tight, interesting combat that swayed back and forth. This is something that I seem to be getting more and more in 4E - usually without killing anyone often. The number of tight combats I've had, compared to the number of PCs I've killed is very high. This is a really good thing. Part of the reason I felt satisfied was also that it was a good set up for making the magic items I gave PCs really count. Chaos Engine's ability to turn a power into a fire keyword power and the flaming halberd were central to the combat. Good use of these items would present a far easier encounter than if they didn't use them. Making them relevant and important choices in magic items - not just another +2 ranged and +1 melee weapon. As you can tell this was a really close combat and when you factor in an additional three potential swarms, the use of these items was essential to victory. I did remind the artificer about Chaos engines powers though. It was a couple of weeks since last playing and at the time, it may have been the difference between fighting an extra swarm (or not fighting it). This naturally helped finish off the remaining zombies with satisfying sounds of murderous baby spiders popping. *This seems stupid, but in reality Gryll was afraid of setting the main webs on fire. This would not kill many of the spiders as the web would not burn fast enough, but would destroy many of the towns house's thatched roofing - exposing them entirely to assaults by the creatures inevitable return. Not to mention that dispersing the creatures would cause them to flow into the surrounding forest, preventing the villagers from escaping that way either. Unfortunately, I did not get this explanation across to the PCs at the time. Another pro-DM tip, always read your own story notes so you get across important concepts before the game. Edit: Enfeebling bite was name changed to Festering Wound (which I thought was more appropriate). Here is the tomb spiders stat block. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/TombSpider.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> </blockquote>

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