Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Summary of Run #11:
Before heading out into the swamp on our scout-and-harass mission, Logan and Caldwell spent a day using our new alchemy lab to brew up some goodies – which I see Piratecat has already listed above. While the rest of us waited, a couple of boats arrived in Floodford from upriver – empty of crew and stained with blood. It seemed that the lizardmen were sending us a demoralizing message: they controlled the lands north of the town, and had cut off the shipping lanes.
Then next day we were given a good swamp boat, as well as the company of Yiddin Longplank, a Grey Guard combat medic. (Metagame note: Doc’s player (Blackjack) missed the session. Fictionally he was acting as trailing rearguard, and so was not involved in our combats. PCat ran Yiddin as an NPC.)
We decided to start out heading west (toward the Bubbling Fens), with the intention of scouting that area before heading north to the bulk of the re-massing lizard army. After a morning of poling around the swamp getting bitten by a skillion normal-sized mosquitoes, we were beset by a half-dozen of their detestable older brothers – stirges! We heard their telltale flying buzz while they were still a round away, which gave us time to start out with some wizard blasting and dagger-flinging. And while they squicked us out, we made pretty short work of them. The buzzing buggers had trouble hitting us, and our striker-heavy group killed them all with only one able to attach itself (to Toiva).
After the fight, we spotted something odd a couple miles away – birds circling above the swamp in great numbers. Thinking it might be carrion birds massing above a ship in distress, we quickly poled over to investigate. What we saw was – disturbing. There were in fact carrion birds aplenty, along with many bloated stirges. They wheeled above, and dined upon, a huge mass of dead lizardmen (we estimated about 200), floating obscenely in the muck. Had there been infighting? Or was this a burial ground?
We had insufficient time to ponder this new mystery, because our boat was shaken and tipped by lizardmen who had approached unseen beneath the water! There followed a tense and exciting battle between us and a quartet of lizardmen adventurers, kicked off by everyone but Cobalt falling off the boat into the water, and a crocodile dragging Logan several squares away. Three of the lizards engaged us at close range, while a fourth attacked from several squares out. At least two of them used attacks that made barbed foliage grow directly out of our skin – ugh! The ranged attacker (a sorcerer), after first missing Cobalt with a glob of acidic spit, followed up with a brutal area attack that scared the heck out of us; even though it only hit Toiva, the damage was formidable, and caused the aforementioned outbreak of barbed plant-life.
But, despite the gruesome attacks from a couple of the lizardmen, including one that dazed both Logan and Longplank, we slew them all without any of us even going unconscious, and with (I think) only a small number of healing surges spent.
With time to investigate further the pile of bodies, Strontium realized that there were specially marked objects set around the perimeter. (He actually had a flashback to his ancient past that imparted this knowledge.) These 200 bodies had been placed here as part of a ritual meant to animate them into unlife! Needless to say, we smashed up the ritual components as thoroughly as possible.
And that’s where we stopped. Next game: The Bubbling Fens!
Tactical Notes:
- For swamp navigation, Piratecat identified several skills we’d need, and we assigned them to the best characters. For instance, we needed Nature checks to help navigate the swamp, Endurance and Athletics for poling, Stealth for keeping the boat well camouflaged, etc. It was a neat variant on the Skill Challenge, I thought.
- The stirges were, near as I can tell, of the 1st- level variety. That’s probably why were took care of them so easily.
- The fight against the lizardman “party” was, like all of our combats so far, well-paced and non-draggy. It did make me realize that a significant percentage of our combats thus far has taken place in terrain that is difficult for us, but not our enemies. It’s a natural consequence of an extended series of engagements with lizardmen in a swamp, but it’s particularly vexing in a rogue-heavy party where flanking position is so vital. (Vexing to the characters, mind you. As a player, I find it an interesting tactical challenge.)
- As Piratecat said above, the enemies were a druid, ranger, warden and sorcerer (all 3rd level), along with the ranger’s crocodile beast companion. The ranger, fortunately for us, was annihilated almost instantly when Logan landed a gruesome 39-point hit with Blade Vault. That’s our current record for most damage done in one attack by one character.
- The sorcerer was the scariest enemy, due to the fact that he did 28 points of damage to one character in a Blast 3 attack (Lightning Breath, repurposed to do “plant” damage instead of lightning.). We realized that, had he hit all three targets in the blast, he could have done 84 points of damage in a single attack. See above for our relatively paltry record.
- Because Piratecat was playing the monsters as PC’s, they didn’t have as many hit points as MM baddies typically do. As a result, the rogue-cuisinart of Logan and Cobalt make pretty short work of our enemies. As I predicted in my last update, it turns out we love love love Toiva’s choice of Righteous Smite. Temporary hit points are as good as healing for us melee striker types.
- Both Logan’s player and I were very pleased with our selections of 3rd-level Encounter powers from Martial Power. Logan took Blade Vault, which in addition to being extremely stylish, helped immensely in the difficult terrain of the swamp. Cobalt took Low Slash, and as a Minor Action it served the exact purpose I expected: giving him a second attack in a flanking situation when his first attack missed.
- While I’m praising rogue powers, I’ve become a huge fan of the Adaptable Flanker. I don’t think a single fight has gone by since we attained 2nd-level, that Cobalt hasn’t used it to get combat advantage when he otherwise couldn’t have gotten it. In essence, it’s an encounter power that’s: “Do an extra 2d8+3 damage on an attack.”
- Cobalt found himself Marked by the Warden at one point. We collectively decided that it’s more fun if players (and by extension the PC’s) don’t know what the effect of the mark will be until we try attacking elsewhere. Fortunately for Cobalt (in this case), he was more than happy to keep attacking his Marker.
- Skills used this game: Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Endurance, Heal, History, Nature, Perception, Religion, Stealth
Before heading out into the swamp on our scout-and-harass mission, Logan and Caldwell spent a day using our new alchemy lab to brew up some goodies – which I see Piratecat has already listed above. While the rest of us waited, a couple of boats arrived in Floodford from upriver – empty of crew and stained with blood. It seemed that the lizardmen were sending us a demoralizing message: they controlled the lands north of the town, and had cut off the shipping lanes.
Then next day we were given a good swamp boat, as well as the company of Yiddin Longplank, a Grey Guard combat medic. (Metagame note: Doc’s player (Blackjack) missed the session. Fictionally he was acting as trailing rearguard, and so was not involved in our combats. PCat ran Yiddin as an NPC.)
We decided to start out heading west (toward the Bubbling Fens), with the intention of scouting that area before heading north to the bulk of the re-massing lizard army. After a morning of poling around the swamp getting bitten by a skillion normal-sized mosquitoes, we were beset by a half-dozen of their detestable older brothers – stirges! We heard their telltale flying buzz while they were still a round away, which gave us time to start out with some wizard blasting and dagger-flinging. And while they squicked us out, we made pretty short work of them. The buzzing buggers had trouble hitting us, and our striker-heavy group killed them all with only one able to attach itself (to Toiva).
After the fight, we spotted something odd a couple miles away – birds circling above the swamp in great numbers. Thinking it might be carrion birds massing above a ship in distress, we quickly poled over to investigate. What we saw was – disturbing. There were in fact carrion birds aplenty, along with many bloated stirges. They wheeled above, and dined upon, a huge mass of dead lizardmen (we estimated about 200), floating obscenely in the muck. Had there been infighting? Or was this a burial ground?
We had insufficient time to ponder this new mystery, because our boat was shaken and tipped by lizardmen who had approached unseen beneath the water! There followed a tense and exciting battle between us and a quartet of lizardmen adventurers, kicked off by everyone but Cobalt falling off the boat into the water, and a crocodile dragging Logan several squares away. Three of the lizards engaged us at close range, while a fourth attacked from several squares out. At least two of them used attacks that made barbed foliage grow directly out of our skin – ugh! The ranged attacker (a sorcerer), after first missing Cobalt with a glob of acidic spit, followed up with a brutal area attack that scared the heck out of us; even though it only hit Toiva, the damage was formidable, and caused the aforementioned outbreak of barbed plant-life.
But, despite the gruesome attacks from a couple of the lizardmen, including one that dazed both Logan and Longplank, we slew them all without any of us even going unconscious, and with (I think) only a small number of healing surges spent.
With time to investigate further the pile of bodies, Strontium realized that there were specially marked objects set around the perimeter. (He actually had a flashback to his ancient past that imparted this knowledge.) These 200 bodies had been placed here as part of a ritual meant to animate them into unlife! Needless to say, we smashed up the ritual components as thoroughly as possible.
And that’s where we stopped. Next game: The Bubbling Fens!
Tactical Notes:
- For swamp navigation, Piratecat identified several skills we’d need, and we assigned them to the best characters. For instance, we needed Nature checks to help navigate the swamp, Endurance and Athletics for poling, Stealth for keeping the boat well camouflaged, etc. It was a neat variant on the Skill Challenge, I thought.
- The stirges were, near as I can tell, of the 1st- level variety. That’s probably why were took care of them so easily.
- The fight against the lizardman “party” was, like all of our combats so far, well-paced and non-draggy. It did make me realize that a significant percentage of our combats thus far has taken place in terrain that is difficult for us, but not our enemies. It’s a natural consequence of an extended series of engagements with lizardmen in a swamp, but it’s particularly vexing in a rogue-heavy party where flanking position is so vital. (Vexing to the characters, mind you. As a player, I find it an interesting tactical challenge.)
- As Piratecat said above, the enemies were a druid, ranger, warden and sorcerer (all 3rd level), along with the ranger’s crocodile beast companion. The ranger, fortunately for us, was annihilated almost instantly when Logan landed a gruesome 39-point hit with Blade Vault. That’s our current record for most damage done in one attack by one character.
- The sorcerer was the scariest enemy, due to the fact that he did 28 points of damage to one character in a Blast 3 attack (Lightning Breath, repurposed to do “plant” damage instead of lightning.). We realized that, had he hit all three targets in the blast, he could have done 84 points of damage in a single attack. See above for our relatively paltry record.
- Because Piratecat was playing the monsters as PC’s, they didn’t have as many hit points as MM baddies typically do. As a result, the rogue-cuisinart of Logan and Cobalt make pretty short work of our enemies. As I predicted in my last update, it turns out we love love love Toiva’s choice of Righteous Smite. Temporary hit points are as good as healing for us melee striker types.
- Both Logan’s player and I were very pleased with our selections of 3rd-level Encounter powers from Martial Power. Logan took Blade Vault, which in addition to being extremely stylish, helped immensely in the difficult terrain of the swamp. Cobalt took Low Slash, and as a Minor Action it served the exact purpose I expected: giving him a second attack in a flanking situation when his first attack missed.
- While I’m praising rogue powers, I’ve become a huge fan of the Adaptable Flanker. I don’t think a single fight has gone by since we attained 2nd-level, that Cobalt hasn’t used it to get combat advantage when he otherwise couldn’t have gotten it. In essence, it’s an encounter power that’s: “Do an extra 2d8+3 damage on an attack.”
- Cobalt found himself Marked by the Warden at one point. We collectively decided that it’s more fun if players (and by extension the PC’s) don’t know what the effect of the mark will be until we try attacking elsewhere. Fortunately for Cobalt (in this case), he was more than happy to keep attacking his Marker.
- Skills used this game: Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Endurance, Heal, History, Nature, Perception, Religion, Stealth
