Run #14 was this past Thursday. First, the plot summary:
Having escaped from the Tide of Sklar, and anxious to return to Floodford, we started the boat journey back. There was some discussion about what to do with our prisoner Xiras, rescued from Aline’s weird spirit-siphoning ritual. He was banished from Floodford on pain of death should he return, so we were disinclined to march him in. Toiva raised the prospect of his joining the Grey Guard, but he scoffed at the idea. (And a good thing too – at best he’s insane, and at worse he’s an insane murderer.) We decided to keep him in the boat until we were at the outskirts of town, and then send someone to ask Commander Pikeline what she’d like us to do with him.
About an hour out from Floodford, our boat ground to a sudden and unwelcome halt. In a large area (about 100’ across) a dense mat of weeds had risen up to the swamp’s surface, effectively making the area into solid ground. At the same time, Logan spotted a winged creature descending at us from a great height. It was the summoned gargoyle from the hut in the Bubbling Fens – the monster we thought had returned to its native Lower Plane when we destroyed the scrolls in Aline’s ritual room.
Not so much, it turns out. It spoke to us telepathically as it flew, that it didn’t want any witnesses to our imminent demises. Things started out promising as we delivered some highly effective ranged attacks before it landed, but our optimism was short-lived. It landed in front of the boat and breathed out a lingering cloud of poisonous and dazing gas. Then the swamp zombies started to rise up from the mat – 10 of them in immediate proximity. By their rotting raiment, Strontium identified them as old soldiers of the Empire. They were minions, but still dangerous in numbers. And the worst was yet to come – three bubbling sections of the swamp around the boat presaged the arrival of a trio of tougher zombies. These newcomers (one was even a Warforged, albeit corrupted and clogged with weeds) radiated auras of poison, and their strikes had a chance to immobilize us. Things were touch and go for a round or two, but Logan dealt a massive blow to the gargoyle, and the zombies were eventually destroyed.
Xiras helped in the combat, but as we entered the mopping up phase he made a break for it, diving under the mat of weeds. We managed to track him down and knock him out before he could give us the slip, and returned him to the boat.
When we reached the outskirts of Floodford, Logan went on ahead to report to Commander Pikeline. He discovered some interesting things:
- With the assistance of soldiers from nearby towns, the lizardman army had been defeated.
- Three Grey Guardsman were killed in the assault, including Caducity Skirr and Sergeant Tenblood, Pikeline’s second-in-command. The Dragonborn sage Brogh had been promoted to take his place.
- The person who killed the fake-Xiras (who was leading the lizard army) turned out to be the obnoxious Runcible Parsons, who was now full of himself. Oy.
At Pikeline’s request we brought Xiras to the Grey Guard tower for questioning, and are now once again awaiting further orders.
Tactical Notes:
- 14 runs in, and not the slightest whiff of combat grind.
- The enemies in the battle were:
o 3 Chillborn Zombies (Level 4 soldiers) repurposed with a swampy poison theme as “Poisonweed Zombies.”
o 10 Zombie Rotters (bumped up to Level 5 minions)
o 1 Venomous Abishai (from the Draconomicon – a Level 6 Controller)
- Overlapping auras that stack? Yikes! We collectively took a ton of damage from those.
- We pulled out all the stops in this one. I think just about everyone used their Daily and their Action Point.
- I thought our group tactics were kind of mediocre, in that we spread out and attacked the three Poisonweed Zombies individually, rather than focusing fire. This was somewhat forced upon us by the facts that:
o The minions came out of the swamp in a perimeter around the boat, that would have meant many OA’s against anyone who didn’t just fight whomever was close at hand.
o Our two NPC’s, Yiddin and Xiras, both fled from the boat in opposite directions at the very start of the battle.
Even so, Logan made great use of Blade Vault to get a devastating flanking attack on the gargoyle.
- Doc Caldwell is having trouble finding good openings to use his melee weapons, and in this combat he again resorted to firing his bow for most attacks. Through a combination of “character built for melee” and “crap die rolling,” he missed on a vast majority of his attacks.
- The combination of the gargoyle’s Zone of Daze ‘n Damage, and the Zombies’ immobilization power, was not a good one from the PC’s point of view.
- Piratecat has encouraged us to “do random cool things” in battle, to free us from our Stock Powers™. He’s even asked us to add a “Do something cool” card to our stacks of power cards. Toiva did this during the battle; having shapeshifted into a crocodile while fighting underwater, he wanted to grab a zombie in his jaws and flip it back above the weeds. PCat ruled it a Dex vs. Reflex roll, with a low limited damage expression. Toiva made the roll and hurled the zombie, to great effect.
- Piratecat did us a kindness by letting us fight on relatively solid ground, which didn’t count as Difficult Terrain. Yay! (Instead, our mobility was limited by immobilization and slow effects. Booo!) The ground wasn't entirely solid, though – anyone who didn’t move at least a square during their turn had a chance to sink into the swamp. There were holes left in the weed mat where the zombies had emerged, further hindering our movement. Between those factors, the zone of awfulness from the gargoyle’s breath, and the $#@! auras of the zombies, it was a dynamic and hazardous encounter.
- Piratecat also bent the rules a little for Doc Caldwell – an example of giving a frustrated player a bit of a break. After missing with almost every attack he’d made so far, Doc was struck and immobilized by one of the zombies. Even though the Ranger Utility “Yield Ground” is an Immediate Reaction (not an Interrupt), PCat ruled that the Doc could still use the power to Shift, and end up immobilized in his new location.
- Speaking of bad luck: after last game’s amazing “1 in 8000” string of missed attack rolls, I managed a not-quite-as-awful string of missed saving throws, after getting slowed by a zombie’s death blast. I failed 5 saves in a row, one of which was assisted by Toiva’s Divine Mettle (+5). Odds of missing those five saves in a row: about 1 in 120.
- Skills used this game: Athletics, Heal, History, Nature, Perception, Religion, Streetwise