Run #36 was last night. Ugh, but in a fun way!
Plot summary: We're heading northward from the now-flattened city of Bressail, while thousands of refugees are doing the same. Most are headed for the (relative) safety of Rusted Lake, though it's likely that many of these people will end up captured and enslaved by Imperial forces.
We're looking for Caldwell's family, who fled the city ahead of us.
Logan's player's son (who is 8 years old, I think? Alomir?) was with us for the first part of the game, so we had a little mini-adventure with him. He played the boy Jack, separated from his family and running away from a pack of bullies preying on other refugees. Jack ran into the Grey Guard camp the morning after we fled the city, so we had a fun little “beat up and intimidate the bullies” mini-combat. Needless to say we sent the bullies packing and reunited Jack with his folks.
We did eventually find Caldwell's family, sheltering in an old abandoned church. The bad news? Three of the family's menfolk had vanished from their camp the night before. Bramble rolled an astonishingly good Perception check (35 total, I think) to track the missing people, and discovered evidence that they had been dragged off to a nearby graveyard, and down into a tunnel hidden beneath one of the gravestones. Yuck!
It was a bad tactical situation from the start. The tunnel was narrow and snaking, barely wide enough for one person. So we wiggled through this foul-smelling and winding hole, head first, Cobalt in front holding an ever-burning torch. Eventually the tunnel flattened out and emptied into a larger underground space, at which point the combat began, and poorly.
Cobalt was grabbed by something inside the larger space and pulled through (hmmm, I'm sensing a pattern here), whereupon he found himself immobilized and set upon by three fast-moving, rotting undead. A fourth undead popped into the tunnel
behind the single file group and attacked from the rear. Some notes on the battle:
- The undead each had a 2-square aura that lowered our defenses by 2. Given the cramped quarters of the fight and our melee-heavy party composition, this was particularly hampering.
- Every time one of the creatures landed a hit, the victim was immobilized (save ends).
- The damn things seemed like they couldn't miss, though Piratecat said afterward that this was technically an “Easy” combat. Pcat admitted that he was rolling particularly well, which I can believe. If they were level 8 monsters, they probably had to-hit rolls between +11 and +13. Cobalt has an AC of 24, but they hit him with all but one of the attacks they made on him – over 80% accuracy – including two criticals. Cobalt spent the entire combat immobilized, though he still was getting CA most of the time due to flanking allies and a use of his Adaptable Flanker utility. And while I'm here: I'm hard-pressed to think of a battle we've had where Adaptable Flanker didn't give me CA for one round when I couldn't have gotten it any other way. Hurray for useful utility powers!
- Bramble did a great job keeping Cobalt on his feet, spending both of her uses of Healing Spirit on him, as well as blowing her Protective Roots just to give him Damage Reduction 4. At the end of the session, he was nearly at full HP, having expended 3 of his 7 healing surges.
- Logan, at the back of the tunnel, ended up going toe-to-toe with the lone undead attacking from the rear. Strontium was able to fire some spells past him, and while the two of them managed to kill it, Logan finished with very low health – 15 HP, I think.
- This may have technically been an “easy” fight, but it sure didn't feel or play out that way. For one thing, being forced into a tactically disadvantageous position by the narrow tunnel had a huge impact. And as I said, having to fight aura-emanating and immobilizing melee monsters in a cramped space makes things especially tough for us.
- So, eventually we managed to kill 3 of the 4 undead, with the 4th one fleeing. Gilran, the sorcerer, gave chase. He pursued it down some tunnels, turned a corner, and saw many more undead milling about farther down in the darkness. Piratecat grinned and gave him the choice: stay and challenge these new undead by himself, or retreat back to where the rest of the party waited. The latter was obviously the smarter tactical choice – a choice that Gilran, reckless Chaos Sorcerer with an 8 WIS, probably didn't even consider. Which meant that the second encounter had just become combined with the first one... argh!
There are actually both good and bad side-effects of the two encounters becoming one, though mostly bad. The good:
- Several party members still have the effects of Bramble's Spirit of Healing Flood, which means they have regen 2 while bloodied, and can get 10 free HP when they need it.
- Cobalt will still be benefiting from Damage Resistance 4.
The bad:
- We went into the fight with 2 Action Points each, but anyone who spent one in the first half of the encounter won't be able to spend another one.
- Bramble has expended both uses of her Healing Spirit power, and won't have them back for the next wave of undead.
- We collectively blew many Encounter powers in the “Easy” part of the battle, which we're not getting back.
- No chance for Logan to blow some free surges between encounters to get back to decent health. With Bramble out of healing, Logan only has his second wind left, and maybe a healing potion.
We'll see how things go next time. We don't know how many more undead are down here, or what will happen to Gilran.
Random other notes:
- Cobalt really has, sadly, become the “defender” in the group. And by “defender,” I mean “punching bag.” He has the highest (non-Will) defenses in the party, and numerous ways to heal himself for a striker: second wind, Stanching Armor, Inspiring Word (1/day) and a healing potion. I trained out Quick Draw to get Light Shield Proficiency to get my AC and REF up, to a now-respectable 24 and 25 respectively. Not that it mattered in this fight.
- Piratecat was gracious enough to allow me to use my beloved 10' pole as a light shield. Wheee! (I also have a normal light shield, for times when I have to leave the pole behind... like this fight.) And speaking of 10' poles: the bully we chased off at the start of the encounter had an enchanted 10' pole of Mule Summoning, which is now his favorite magic item.
- Piratecat has officially adopted the house rule that we can use as many Daily Magic Items as we want each day (though still only once per item per day, naturally.)
Piratecat and the other players, feel free to chime in with stuff I missed or misremembered!
-Sagiro
