NEW (AGAIN)- Thunderspire Labyrinth- Stat analysis #25 Shrine to Baphomet

[Goonalan]

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #20 Area 15: Corridor of the Cube.

Round #4.

Grey- Move back out chamber. Magic Missile CC2; Miss.

Dirty- Move. Crushing Blow GC; Hit 26 damage (72 HP bloodied).

Kaspard- Shift back. Lance of Faith CC2; Hit 9 Radiant damage +5 (Vulnerable) = 14 damage- DEAD Immediate Reaction Death Burst; no one in range.

Phrenic- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (16 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Success. All ongoing effects negated.

CC1- DEAD.

CC2- DEAD.

GC- 5 ongoing Fire damage (67 HP bloodied). Engulf Phrenic; Hit- Grabbed and Dazed and ongoing 10 Acid & Engulf Dirty; Hit- Grabbed and Dazed and ongoing 10 Acid. Action Point. Slam Winstanley; Hit - 2nd Chance - Miss. Save vs ongoing Fire- Success.

Winstanley- Shift back. Sly Flourish GC; Hit 10 damage (57 HP bloodied).

Time to play 10 minutes.

End of Round-

Good Guys
Dirty Biskit, Male Dwarven Fighter 3 (HP35/43)
Kaspard, Female Half-Elf Cleric of Bahamut 3 (HP23/35)
Winstanley Portico, Male Halfling Rogue 3 (HP35)
Grey Morlock, Male Human Wizard 3 (HP24/31)
Phrenic, Male Tiefling Warlord 3 (HP16/34)

Bad Guys 750XP Level 3 Encounter.
Corruption Corpse Level 4 Artillery [CC] (x2) (HP46) 2 DEAD
Gelatinous Cube Level 5 Elite Brute [GC] (HP57/152)

Action Points 0 Total 1
Daily Powers 0 Total 1
Healing Surges 0 Total 1
2nd Winds 0 Total 1
Crits 0 Total 2
PCs Ko'd 0 Total 0
Monster AP 1 Total 1

Comment: The last of the Corruption Corpses bites the dust, and the Cube takes a beating- it has its revenge though and swallows up Phrenic and Dirty- Dave's not happy about this.

 

[Goonalan]

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #20 Area 15: Corridor of the Cube.

Round #5.

Grey- Move back. Ray of Frost GC; Miss.

Dirty- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (25 HP) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Success. All ongoing effects negated.

Kaspard- Move to exit. Sacred Flame GC; Miss. Healing Word +7 HP Phrenic (31 HP).

Phrenic- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (21 HP) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Success. All ongoing effects negated.

CC1- DEAD.

CC2- DEAD.

GC- Engulf Phrenic; Hit- Grabbed and Dazed and ongoing 10 Acid & Engulf Dirty; Hit- Grabbed and Dazed and ongoing 10 Acid. Got them again.

Winstanley- Move out. Sly Flourish GC; Miss.

Time to play 7 minutes.

End of Round-

Good Guys
Dirty Biskit, Male Dwarven Fighter 3 (HP25/43)
Kaspard, Female Half-Elf Cleric of Bahamut 3 (HP23/35)
Winstanley Portico, Male Halfling Rogue 3 (HP35)
Grey Morlock, Male Human Wizard 3 (HP24/31)
Phrenic, Male Tiefling Warlord 3 (HP21/34)

Bad Guys 750XP Level 3 Encounter.
Corruption Corpse Level 4 Artillery [CC] (x2) (HP46) 2 DEAD
Gelatinous Cube Level 5 Elite Brute [GC] (HP57/152)

Action Points 0 Total 1
Daily Powers 0 Total 1
Healing Surges 1 Total 2
2nd Winds 0 Total 1
Crits 0 Total 2
PCs Ko'd 0 Total 0
Monster AP 0 Total 1

Comment: And on it goes, the PCs don't manage to land a hit. Phrenic and Dirty escape only to be swallowed again, I get some funny looks from the pair, maybe I shouldn't cackle while I roll my To Hits.

 

[Goonalan]

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #20 Area 15: Corridor of the Cube.

Round #6.

Grey- Magic Missile GC; Hit 13 Force damage (44 HP bloodied).

Dirty- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (15 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Fails.

Kaspard- Shift forward. Daily Beacon of Hope GC; Miss & all PCs in blast get 8 HP back and Healing +5 for encounter- Grey (Full) & Kaspard (31 HP) & Dirty (23 HP) & Phrenic (29 HP).

Phrenic- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (19 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Fails.

CC1- DEAD.

CC2- DEAD.

GC- Move. Slam Winstanley; Hit 5 damage (30 HP) & Immobilised.

Winstanley- Sly Flourish GC; Hit 8 damage (36 HP bloodied). Save vs Immobilised- Fail.

Time to play 9 minutes.

End of Round-

Good Guys
Dirty Biskit, Male Dwarven Fighter 3 (HP23/43)
Kaspard, Female Half-Elf Cleric of Bahamut 3 (HP31/35)
Winstanley Portico, Male Halfling Rogue 3 (HP30/35)
Grey Morlock, Male Human Wizard 3 (HP31)
Phrenic, Male Tiefling Warlord 3 (HP19/34)

Bad Guys 750XP Level 3 Encounter.
Corruption Corpse Level 4 Artillery [CC] (x2) (HP46) 2 DEAD
Gelatinous Cube Level 5 Elite Brute [GC] (HP36/152)

Action Points 0 Total 1
Daily Powers 1 Total 2
Healing Surges 0 Total 2
2nd Winds 0 Total 1
Crits 0 Total 2
PCs Ko'd 0 Total 0
Monster AP 0 Total 1

Comment: The war of attrition continues, damage output is fairly equal this turn, shame the Cube doesn't regenerate a few Hit Points every time it engulfs a PC, that'd make it interesting. The PCs are in their second hard fight at Level 3, although this is only a Level 3 (+0) encounter, the fact that the Cube didn't arrive on the scene till late is causing the fight to be prolonged- but in a good way you understand.

 

[Goonalan]

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #20 Area 15: Corridor of the Cube.

Round #7.

Grey- Move back. Magic Missile GC; Miss.

Dirty- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (13 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Daily Unstoppable +13 Temp HP.

Kaspard- Healing Strike GC; Miss. Shift back.

Phrenic- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (9 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Inspiring Word +5 HP Self (22 HP).

CC1- DEAD.

CC2- DEAD.

GC- Slam Winstanley; Hit 6 damage (24 HP) & Immobilised.

Winstanley- Sly Flourish GC; Hit 11 damage (25 HP bloodied). Save vs Immobilised- Fail.

Time to play 6 minutes.

End of Round-

Good Guys
Dirty Biskit, Male Dwarven Fighter 3 (HP13/43)
Kaspard, Female Half-Elf Cleric of Bahamut 3 (HP31/35)
Winstanley Portico, Male Halfling Rogue 3 (HP24/35)
Grey Morlock, Male Human Wizard 3 (HP31)
Phrenic, Male Tiefling Warlord 3 (HP22/34)

Bad Guys 750XP Level 3 Encounter.
Corruption Corpse Level 4 Artillery [CC] (x2) (HP46) 2 DEAD
Gelatinous Cube Level 5 Elite Brute [GC] (HP25/152)

Action Points 0 Total 1
Daily Powers 1 Total 3
Healing Surges 1 Total 3
2nd Winds 0 Total 1
Crits 0 Total 2
PCs Ko'd 0 Total 0
Monster AP 0 Total 1

Comment: The Cube pulls ahead of the PCs with damage done this Turn, the kamikaze aspect of these sort of encounters allows the monsters to keep up the damage ratio without a care in the world about their Hit Points. The PCs on the other hand need to exhibit caution, they have fewer Hit Points individually to play with. The DM however, blessed with less intelligent monsters, can just go for it- to the bitter end, wave goodbye to your Healing Surges fellers, I'm coming through.

 

[Goonalan]

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #20 Area 15: Corridor of the Cube.

Round #8.

Grey- Move back. Magic Missile GC; Hit 12 Force damage (13 HP bloodied).

Dirty- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (13 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Success.

Kaspard- Sacred Flame GC; Hit 9 Radiant damage (4 HP bloodied) & 4 Temp HP Winstanley. Shift back.

Phrenic- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (12 HP bloodied) & Dazed & Grabbed. Inspiring Word +4 HP Self (24 HP).

CC1- DEAD.

CC2- DEAD.

GC- Engulf (Immobilised) Winstanley; Hit- Grabbed and Dazed and ongoing 10 Acid. Move.

Winstanley- In Cube ongoing 10 Acid damage (18 HP) & Dazed & Grabbed. Escape grab- Success.

Time to play 6 minutes.

End of Round-

Good Guys
Dirty Biskit, Male Dwarven Fighter 3 (HP13/43)
Kaspard, Female Half-Elf Cleric of Bahamut 3 (HP31/35)
Winstanley Portico, Male Halfling Rogue 3 (HP18/35)
Grey Morlock, Male Human Wizard 3 (HP31)
Phrenic, Male Tiefling Warlord 3 (HP24/34)

Bad Guys 750XP Level 3 Encounter.
Corruption Corpse Level 4 Artillery [CC] (x2) (HP46) 2 DEAD
Gelatinous Cube Level 5 Elite Brute [GC] (HP4/152)

Action Points 0 Total 1
Daily Powers 0 Total 3
Healing Surges 1 Total 4
2nd Winds 0 Total 1
Crits 0 Total 2
PCs Ko'd 0 Total 0
Monster AP 0 Total 1

Comment: And still the Cube is doing more damage than the PCs, shame it only has 4 Hit Points left. The PCs are getting increasingly desperate and yet have not gone Action Point and Daily Power crazy- remarkable restraint shown.

 

[Goonalan]

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #20 Area 15: Corridor of the Cube.

Round #9.

Grey- Move back. Magic Missile GC; Miss.

Dirty- Move. Reaping Strike GC; Hit 14 damage- DEAD.

Time to play 2 minutes.
Total time to play 1 hour & 10 minutes.

End of Combat-

Good Guys
Dirty Biskit, Male Dwarven Fighter 3 (HP13/43)
Kaspard, Female Half-Elf Cleric of Bahamut 3 (HP31/35)
Winstanley Portico, Male Halfling Rogue 3 (HP18/35)
Grey Morlock, Male Human Wizard 3 (HP31)
Phrenic, Male Tiefling Warlord 3 (HP24/34)

Bad Guys 750XP Level 3 Encounter.
Corruption Corpse Level 4 Artillery [CC] (x2) (HP46) 2 DEAD
Gelatinous Cube Level 5 Elite Brute [GC] (HP152) DEAD

Action Points 0 Total 1
Daily Powers 0 Total 3
Healing Surges 0 Total 4
2nd Winds 0 Total 1
Crits 0 Total 2
PCs Ko'd 0 Total 0
Monster AP 0 Total 1

Comment: Why do the good always die young. He was an excellent Gelatinous Cube, a little misunderstood perhaps, who knows in different circumstances he may have made friends with the PCs.

Right after he'd sucked the marrow from their bones.

The PCs take a well earned rest, scrape the acidic jelly off themselves and take a look around, a +1 Safewing Amulet is discovered, as well as a number of pieces of jewellery, mementos of Sir Keegan's dead family.

Stats: A prolonged encounter for a variety of reasons, such as the late appearance of the Cube, the difficulty of using Grey's artillery capability, and the fact that all the bad guys Hit Points are stacked in one creature.

Phrenic hit with 100% of his attacks, it's a shame he only got to make three attacks as the rest of the time he was eating acid slime. All of the other PCs below 60% connection rate, with Kaspard down to 33.33% and Winstanley, of all people, only hitting 57.14% of the time, and that's with +5 To Hit the Cube. Overall PCs connection rate 56.25%, that's in contrast to the bad guys with 77.78%. Quite a turn-around.

This is mitigated by the fact that the PCs still managed to connect with 18 attacks (from 32), while the bad guys only made 18 attacks in total (and hit 14 times). Also many of the monsters attacks delivered no initial damage (from the Cube), they did however effectively prevent engulfed PCs from doing anything the following turn- other than staying alive and/or escaping the Cube.

And so for the reasons stated above the fight took quite a while to play through.

Combined Stats: Two tough encounters at Level 3, average play time 8 Turns for 64 minutes, also average level of encounters 5, which is enough to test the PCs. Overall, after 19 combat encounters in total, the average level is 4.37 (Level +1.37), time to play 6.42 Turns for 50.63 minutes.

Grey stretching the lead slightly with damage done over Winstanley, 1255 versus 1158, Winstanley however still on top with connection rate at 75.86% against Grey (in 2nd place) with 63.98%. Of note is Grey's new encounter power- Fire Shroud which is already a firm favourite- 80% connection rate (8 from 10) it has already delivered 93 hit points damage, and he's only used it twice.

Dirty does the most damage on average/hit with 14.32 points of damage, shame he only hits 54.76% of the time- the least of all of the PCs. Winstanley does the second most damage per hit with 13.16 points of damage, the joys of Sneak Attack.

Just a quick look at the PCs Daily Power usage (connection rate and damage done)-

Grey has not used any of his Daily Powers five times.
22.22% (2 from 9) Kaspard Beacon of Hope
53.85% (7 from 13) Dirty Brute Strike Total damage 170 Average 24.29 damage
80% (4 from 5) Phrenic Lead the Attack Total damage 67 Average 16.75 damage
80% (4 from 5) Winstanley Trick Strike Total damage 75 Average 18.75 damage

One last thing, the PCs are already well on the way to Level 4, a cumulative effect of delaying their Extended Rests, most of the PCs have 3,500 XP already, they only need 3,750 for Level 4. Why this is particularly of note is the players are desperately trying to get to Level 4, we decided at the start of the game to play the pregen characters exactly as written, the players have not made any choices of their own as regards their characters so far, Level 4 will be their first opportunity to do so. I've thought about delaying their progression to Level 4 till after The Keep on the Shadowfell is done however we've been playing the scenario pretty much as written so... I've only just swapped to the RAW version of XP, I don't really want to start messing withi it again so soon after making the change.

 

[Goonalan]

Hi there,

I would post the next bit I'm stuck with Flickr, they've changed it and I can't figure out how to post images here.

Minor rant, if something is not broken- flickr, why change it?

Anyone know how to insert images here, I used to just- Insert Image and go and copy and paste the image details (link- I think?) from flickr- easy as that.

Now when I go to flickr- share this and either copy the link (or the short cut), or the URL, then the image doesn't appear here.

What gives?

Sorry I am not PC/computer smart.

Cheers.

 

[Goonalan]

See above- pretty please, can it be done?

How do you insert images here using the new Flickr format, and if Flickr is now dead to you where do I go to upload images to insert in post here.

Cheers Goonalan

 

[Goonalan]

So I think I've fixed it...

H1 Keep on the Shadowfell
Encounter #21 Area 16: The Statue Chamber.

The PCs back track and then head south through another pair of ancient double doors and into a chamber containing one of the biggest statues the PCs have ever seen- a twenty foot tall statue of a sword-wielding warrior.



Winstanley's spider-senses begin to tingle, he orders the PCs to stop where they are and stay silent, close observation from a distance reveals the statue pivots- it's a trap, also there seems to be some sort of panel on the upper section of the statue, Grey helps out by providing some light on the subject.

Winstanley creeps in while the other PCs stay in the alcove by door- alas the trap activates and the great sword swings round and smashes into Winstanley; Crit – Armour of Bahamut from Kaspard – reduced to 7 damage (25 HP) and Prone.

Win stays on all fours and scampers towards the statue's base.

Not fast enough.

The huge sword swings again and hits again; 7 damage (18 HP).

Kaspard once again springs into action with a Healing Word +6 HP Winstanley (32 HP), that was Winstanleys last Healing Surge, remember he's only been in two fights so far.

Winstanley gets to the base of the statue and scrambles up the thing.

He easily opens the Control Panel, and just as easily and deactivates the statue without any further problems.

Around the room are a number of other suspicious devices, or at least so say the PCs, and this is where things get dumb-

Winstanley asks Grey to Magic Missile one of the Dragon Statues, he hits and a chunk of the statue falls off. The PCs exchange smiles and begin to throw, fire or spell their way through the Dragon Statues till all that's left of them is two small piles of rubble.

Further into the room are two pairs of Cherub Statues, by the only exit- a little later there are four smaller piles of rubble.

Encounter Complete.

Total time to play 18 minutes.

Comment: How dumb is that? They look like traps, smell like traps etc. and yet can all be destroyed (without being activated) by simply standing well back and throwing things at them, and this brilliant piece of deduction came courtesy of a party of all bar one noobs.

That was some of the easiest XP the PCs have ever earned.

Just a reminder again- Winstanley has no Healing Surges left.

Stats & Combined Stats: No change.

 

[Taed]

I agree that the traps were too obvious. I played it essentially as written, but got around that in two ways. First, when they opened the doors, they saw a semi-fresh dead body of an adventurer on the floor and Splug (who had been with them, but ran away two encounters previous) was looting the body. Splug was surprised to see the PCs and ran to the other exit (recall that the traps do not affect evil creatures). So, one of the PCs ran after him... right into the big statue trap. Second item was that once the trap was sprung, the door magically shut (despite them knocking it off the hinges previously), locking one in the room and the rest still in the hallway. That bothered them quite a bit, and they were quite eager to get into the room and attack the trap that was attacking their party member.

However, they saw the traps of the dragon statues and the water trap a mile away, so they just blasted them from afar.