Last night was Run #10 of Piratecat’s Grey Guard campaign. It was another role-playing-heavy and combat-light game; this entry will be briefer than most.
After an afternoon and evening of R&R, we were given the assignment of interrogating Scrit (the Governor’s treasonous secretary). They had him dangling in a cage, suspended out over a waterfall. (The cage was at the end of a swiveling arm, operated by winch, typically used by local teamsters to hoist stuff up the falls.)
Knowing that Scrit had attack powers that manifested by shouting, the Grey Guard provided us with an alchemically-treated rope that would constrict in the presence of a sudden loud noise. After we had winched the cage to the shore’s edge, we put that rope around his neck and explained its function before taking off his gag.
We didn’t get very far into the interrogation, though, before a squad of lizardmen showed up to stop us – apparently by trying to
kill Scrit, rather than bother rescuing him. The lizards had a strange ability to remain perfectly still while in contact with water, which allowed them to launch an opening salvo of darts from
inside the crest of the 70’ waterfall. We returned fire from the shore, Logan and Cobalt flinging magic daggers, Caldwell shooting his bow, and Strontium casting from range. Toiva used her Lay on Hands ability on the prisoner to save him from the ongoing damage of the poisoned darts.
Alas, in the initial rush of combat, we failed to the notice the fourth lizard-man, who had sneaked up to the winching mechanism and then swung the cage back out over the water, knocking Toiva and Strontium into the river! Keep in mind that we were only 40’ or so from the crest of the falls, and the river was extremely rapid. Strontium managed to grab the slope of the shore and pull herself up, but Toiva was swept swiftly toward a likely plummet and death. Still, she was kind enough to cast Radiant Delirium on her way down the river, dazing one of the lizards (who had moved upriver a bit to engage us).
Logan rushed to the winch and dispatched the lizardman there in a single round. Cobalt tried to fish Toiva out of the river with his trusty 10’ pole, but she couldn’t grab on in the fast-moving current. (She also failed to grab onto one of the lizards, and instead cast her new Righteous Smite to give temporary hit points to the rest of the party). Strontium did some serious damage with Fire Shroud.
Cobalt and Logan did manage to save Toiva from likely death by catching her with roped grappling hooks, just as she was swept over the falls. Whew! And despite the lack of flanking opportunities, we mopped up the lizardmen in short order after that.
Perhaps realizing that his would-be rescuers were actually murderers, Scrit was remarkably cooperative after that. We’re not certain that he was being truthful, but he seemed to be. He offered the opinion that the lizard army was being spurred on by the exiled Dragonborn adventurer Xiras, and his elven consort Aline. (Xiras was exiled because he was the only survivor of several adventuring groups. Hmmmm.) Scrit further opined that Aline is the brains of the operation, and that there’s something in Floodford that she wants. Her plan in the event the invasion failed was to come into the city under a banner of truce, and have more lizard soldiers sneak in during the parlay.
What’s more, he told us that the stolen weapons had probably been teleported directly to Xiras’s camp in a place called the “Bubbling Fens” out in the swamp.
After some more interrogation we brought Scrit back to the Grey Guard tower, where Pikeline had him locked up in a cell. Then she gave us our next assignment: scout the swamp, find the Bubbling Fens, and harry the rear of the next lizardman invasion force to approach Floodford.
As a personal postscript for Cobalt, he (or, rather, his mother) was once again insulted in the hallway by the obnoxious Runcible Parsons. Cobalt, particularly frustrated that he’d gotten the worst of every previous encounter with the man, took a swing. He missed. But – a first! – Parsons missed with the counter attack. They traded another round of misses before Cobalt finally – FINALLY – connected with the twerp’s face. And, having landed a blow at long last, he thanked Parsons for the exchange and left him there holding his bloody nose.
Finally, Pikeline saw to it that the Governor paid us back for saving him, by loaning us a Big Book of Alchemical Recipes. Even better, she’s supplying us with space and materials for an alchemy lab in the Grey Guard tower. Logan and Caldwell are both amateur alchemists, eager to brew up some trouble.
Tactical Notes:
- This was our first game at 3rd level. For our 3rd-level Encounter Powers, we picked:
Logan (Rogue) – Blade Vault (MP)
Cobalt (Rogue) – Low Slash (MP)
Strontium (Wizard) – Fire Shroud
Toiva (Paladin) – Righteous Smite
Caldwell (Ranger) - Disruptive Strike
- The three lizards in the waterfall in the battle were Greenscale Darters (Level 5 Lurkers). The fourth lizard (who used the winch-and-cage against us) was also a Greenscale Darter, but reduced to Level 3. Their ability to “stick” in water was presumably from a ritual.
- The battle with the lizards – involving five 3rd-level PC’s and the four lizards referenced above – took 41 minutes and lasted (I think) four rounds. It would have been even faster, but we spent a couple of minutes figuring out the exact layout of the waterfall-and-river, since not everyone interpreted Piratecat’s beautiful drawing of the scenario the same way.
- Piratecat adjudicated Toiva in the river as follows: on her turn, she was first moved three squares downriver. Then she took her actions. Then she was moved another three squares. So, 6 squares of forced movement per round, with an action half way through. She could also make athletics checks to alter her trajectory by a square. Given where she was knocked in, she would have gone over the falls at the end of her second round in the water, had we not snagged her with grapples.
- The lizards’ ability to attack at range from the middle of a swift river made it impossible to flank them. I can see going forward that nested snipers are going to be one of the toughest kinds of fight for our 40%-rogue party.
- Skills used this game: Acrobatics, Athletics, Diplomacy, Heal, History, Insight, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth (by the enemy), Streetwise
- While our collective dice-rolling was not as execrable as in the past couple of sessions, it did take four awful rolls in a row for both Toiva and Strontium to be knocked into the river, and that’s sure what they rolled.
- I think Logan broke our record for most damage done in a single round: 37 points, from a critical hit + action point sneak attack.
- I’m really pleased with Toiva’s choice of Encounter 3 Power. That’s something like 35 total temporary hit points for the party (if everyone’s within the range, and the attack hits). Our Leader-free party can use all the pseudo-healing it can get!
