Sandboxing in the Nentir Vale (was: Emergent Features in KotS)

[LostSoul]

It was Canada Day so we played a little longer than normal - about 5 hours or so. Lendil's player moved away so we are down to three! Next time we'll get some new blood in.

We had two new PCs - a half-elf Bard named Shamon Moonwalker and a human Warden named Umal. We threw around a few ideas about how they would join up with the group while we waited for two_fishes to show up; once he got there, we jumped right into the role-playing.

I had Bairwin Wildarson approach Hekubus. He had asked them to escort his carvan back to Winterhaven the previous day, but was told to wait. Now only Hekubus had returned. He asked Hekubus if he'd like to accompany the bard and the mysterious guy in the corner of bar with them to Winterhaven, as he had hired them on as muscle.

I ad-libbed that on the spot, and made sure to tell the players that they could overrule it, but they seemed okay with it once I told them about Kobold Hall.​

Hekubus must have wanted revenge on draconic creatures and the Umal the Warden was hunting down the same, so they decided to clear out Kobold Hall for the rewards promised (a bounty on kobold ears and the cured dragonscale lost somewhere within). The PCs bid Bairwin farewell and went into the ruins of an ancient castle now known only as Kobold Hall.

We ran through the first encounter and it was a breeze for them. 3rd-level PCs, even 3 of them, made short work of the encounter. One slinger escaped to warn his companions in the next room; the PCs debated if they should take 5 to catch their breath or not. In the end they waited.

They moved onto the trap room and Umal got nailed with a couple darts. Shamon spotted the kobolds lurking around the ancient coffins after lighting up the room with a torch. Once a target presented itself, Hekubus chopped his head off his shoulders with a single blow.

Hekubus declared that he would cut the kobold's head off with a "stunt" before he made the roll; it turned out to be a crit and did enough damage to kill him anyways.​

Another cakewalk for the PCs. Umal triggered three dart traps and lost a few healing surges, but nothing major. The slinger who fled into this room fled into the next along with a bloodied skirmisher.

They moved into the skull-skull room and started off well. The slinger who kept running killed himself out of shame after Shamon spoke a word of power (killed him with that one Bard at-will power, I forget the name). The skull-skull bomb came after Hekubus but he dodged it easily.

Once again, Hekubus declared he would dodge it before the roll came and he predicted the outcome.​

Umal opened the doors and was at once set upon by the two guard drakes who tore into him, dealing 27 points of damage. I think Hekubus got hit twice by the skull-skull and was pushed into the pit. (We forgot about the "catch yourself" saving throw.) But Shamon did some fancy dance moves and brought Umal back to life.

Umal went down once again after getting flanked by a skirmisher, Shamon was thrown into the pit by the skull-skull, and when Umal got back up he got knocked down at its edge (when we remembered the saving throw). Then the PCs turned things around and started dishing out the damage to the bunched-up bad guys and soon won the day.

Two kobold minions fled into the next room; the PCs decided to take a short rest, slamming the doors shut.

After a few minutes those same minions came back into the room to parlay. They said that the PCs could leave with their lives if they would pay tribute or something. Shamon easily fooled the kobolds into thinking he was going to go along with this plan, giving them a statue of tiamat they had picked up and promising to give them some gold.

The kobold minions led them into the next room (the one with the boulder) and the wyrmpriest started questioning them. Once he came into sight Umal charged him in a surprise round. (Shamon had done such a good job of making them listen to him that they were unprepared for Umal's attack.)

Umal missed the wyrmpriest and the PCs rolled crap for initiative. Umal got blasted by the wyrmpriest who shifted back to the dragonshields for safety; the dragonshields moved down the stairs and readied attacks.

The boulder came rolling out but didn't hit anyone.

Umal moved into the dragonshields, hoping to bull rush them so he'd be past the boulder; this triggered their shifty movement powers and they stepped back. He was forced to spend an AP to move out of the boulder's path, and then the dragonshield's readied actions triggered and they nailed him.

Umal was bloodied at this point.

Hekubus and Shamon were dealing with the slingers in the middle of the room, attacking them from range, when they launched their glue pots. Shamon was immobilized, I think, and the boulder was coming. Hekubus leapt up onto the top of the middle area and started smacking the slingers around, pushing the ladder one was standing on. It fell and he broke his neck.

Umal took some more punishment and dropped. The boulder rolled over Shamon. Shamon brought Umal back to life, but once again the kobolds dropped him. Things were not looking good.

Did I mention Umal was out of Healing Surges at this point? Yeah, he was.

Hekubus tried to leap across from the middle of the room to the ledge the wyrmpriest was on - his fingers grabbed the ledge - but not enough and he fell. A few blasts from the wyrmpriest, an attack from a shifty dragonshield, and he was down as well.

Shamon moonwalked around the room and brought the other PCs back up (Umal with 1 hp now). They made a mad dash for the exit and the DM's hot dice failed him, just making it.

Here is where things got tense.

The wyrmpriest shouted out, "Wake the master!" The PCs knew they were going to be chased.

We ran a quick skill challenge. I described the area and the PCs decided they were going to try and find a place to hide. They spotted a rotted-out log which they all climbed into. They felt a chill in the air, their hearts started pounding in their chest, and Hekubus recognized this as the presence of a dragon.

The kobolds started scouring the area; the dragon was sniffing round. The spiretop drake landed on the log as Shamon was quietly singing a ritual to make them run as fast as horses; he played the tune to mimic a bird and the drake scurried off into the forest to find it.

Then they ran. Hekubus called his boar (in the woods rooting out truffles) and rode it. Shamon and Umal ran. It was only about 15 miles to Fallcrest; they could make it in about two hours.

The dragon spotted them on the road and the chase was on.

The dragon was gaining on them, but they had enough distance if they could keep up the pace. Hekubus pushed his boar on. Shamon was panting with exertion, but he was going to make it.

Umal, battered by his wounds, couldn't keep up the pace and the dragon closed in on him.

Now that I think about it, that was only 1 failure in the skill challenge - Umal's Endurance failure. The way I proposed it was that they all had to make Endurance checks, and whoever failed would be caught by the dragon. I guess that makes it a "partial success" kind of skill challenge. I probably should have given them more chances to do something. Oh well. I was in the flow.​

Hekubus and Shamon saw that Umal was going to be overtaken and they turned around. Umal had one last chance to catch his breath and outpace the dragon but it closed in on them.

Hekubus was overcome by the awesome presence of the dragon (the second he was facing in as many days) and was shaken. He decided to flee after the dragon swatted down Umal.

Facing the dragon alone, Shamon feigned death after suffering a vicious claw attack. The dragon searched his body for gems; finding none, he searched Umal's body and, taking a magic sword, flew after Hekubus in a rage, leaving the others for dead.

Hekubus made it to Fallcrest before the dragon could close in.

Hekubus went back to the inn to sulk, alone again. An hour later Shamon and Umal arrived and they vowed revenge.

They bought some potions, healed up, and struck back out for Kobold Hall the next day. They met the kobolds and challenged their leader; the dragon obliged.

This time the fight went much better for the PCs; the kobolds, watching the PCs in action, decided that they had new masters now and cut their ears off in tribute. This endeared them to Hekubus and he ordered them to take care of Kobold Hall in his name. The PCs gathered the loot, cashed in on the gp and xp bounty, and rested.

That's where we left it.

I wasn't sure if I should have had the dragon go after them, but I asked myself: what would they do? It made sense; they could go after the wounded PCs now or wait for them to come back the next day, rested and ready for action. I'm trying not to care about what happens to the PCs, just playing the monsters in a logical way.

A skill challenge seemed like a fair way to resolve getting away from the dragon, considering that I already felt like I was being a hard-ass by having him chase them down. I didn't give them much breathing room, and it was a tense challenge, but in retrospect I should have called for at least two more rolls from Umal after the dragon caught up to him - though what would have made sense, I have no idea.

I did give them the option of sacrificing the boar, but Hekubus was against the idea.

I felt like I went too easy on Umal after they went down. I had them roll a d20 to see who the dragon would eat, if anyone, lower roll = dragon food; Umal lost that roll, so he made a saving throw to see if it would eat him. He made the save so the dragon went after Hekubus.

Maybe that makes up for the mistake with the skill challenge! Next time we'll have to be a bit tighter about things.

Hekubus did gain a level, and the kobolds left in Kobold Hall will start up some kind of crazy temple to the Raven Queen, and that might be interesting. They could make some good allies against the kobolds in the Cairngorms if things come to that.

 

[Daern]

Sounds like an interesting session, and a bloody campaign! I know how it is to feel like your pushing to hard as a DM, and then pull back too much, especially when winging it, but its overall a good thing to let them live to fight another day. The dragon chase sounds like it must have been some great gaming! Chased back to town by a dragon. Classic.
As far as the skill challenge goes, I've been thinking that an easy pit to fall into in the moment for both players and DMs is to give too much weight to a single die roll, especially when you are winging it or if the players don't know about the challenge. It is tempting to let a single die resolve it, but really the whole point is that it should take 8 or more rolls to draw out the narrative. This is something I've been grappling with as well.
Overall, kudos, I always lookout for your posts and enjoy your session write ups. Thanks.

 

[LostSoul]

If I had it to do over again, I would have had the dragon chase them; then the skill challenge, with the correct number of failures; then I would have killed anyone who went down in the fight.

 

[Spatula]

Amazing thread! Although it's been a bit sad reading the repeated TPKs and dwindling group size. At least the players get to try out lots of new classes.

 

[LostSoul]

We played again last night. We had 6 players this time; two new regulars + Malchior's player joined us. He might play a few more times over the next two months.

The new PCs were Keiva, an infernal warlock, and Aiden, an elven dual-fighting ranger. Malchior's player made a druid named Sharmok. Unfortunately I was getting over a migrane so I wasn't in top shape for their first game.

We started off with Hekubus, Umar, and Shamon returning to the Nentir Inn with the white dragon's head. The innkeeper offered to buy it (for the princely sum of 10 gp!) and mounted it over the fireplace.

This attracted the attention of a group of homeless people armed to the teeth. One of them had sold her soul to a devil. Obviously the kinds of people you want to trust your life with.

Hekubus had Shamon send a message to Armok; Shamon rolled poorly for the ritual and only got 6 hours range on the sparrow that arrived. We described the failure as the PCs turning their back as the sparrow flew out the window, thinking the job well done, missing the hawk that swooped in and killed the sparrow.

After a rest, Hekubus went back down under Fallcrest to get revenge on the black dragon that killed his friends. This time, however, they bought out all the acid resistance potions in town (1d6, got a 4).

They spotted the dragon and he hissed at them. Aiden was the first into the fray, and he got tail-slapped after a miss. The dragon dropped some magical darkness around itself and crept around within.

Hekubus ran up and insulted the dragon, getting the dragon to hiss and shout back. (Intimidate beat the Will defense.) They knew where it was and they ganged up on it.

They were nice enough to form up into a perfect little clump for its breath weapon, but it did next to no damage thanks to the acid resistance! Urgh. The PCs beat on the monster some more and it was only able to slip out of the middle of the pack using its Frightful Presence. It tried to fly to a nearby pillar connected by two bridges.

Umar ran to the top of the pillar and tried to push the dragon off it (and onto a stalagmite) but missed. Aiden ran up behind the dragon and tried the same thing but missed; the dragon tried to tail-slap him into the whirlpool 30 feet below (the whirlpool draining down somewhere dark and dangerous, I'm sure) but missed.

The dragon dropped some more darkness and flew away from the two fighters. Umar leapt off the stone pillar and tried to drag the dragon down the ground, but couldn't get a hold of the dragon, so he fell. Then Aiden tried the same thing and failed in the same way, landing on top of Umar.

Backed into a corner the clumsy dragon (terribly, terribly hurt now) had to land, and Hekubus smote him mightly and got his revenge.

Easy fight, especially with the acid resistance.

The PCs cleaned up their minor wounds and searched around for treasure; they found a small pile of gold (410 gp) and ripped a chaos tooth out of the dragon's maw. They discovered a portal into the Elemental Chaos, leading to a swampy, distorted landscape. A huge insect the size of a man's fist slammed into an invisible barrier that made up the portal, indicating that it was one-way only. The PCs wisely decided not to head in there.

They also checked out the portal to the shadowfell in the room; it wasn't closed like they assumed before, but apparently it only opens at certain times. They didn't care to try and figure out when.

Rested up, they explored through a small crack leading to a tunnel. This led into a room with a pair of open pits (filled with ancient bones) and a raised area at the far end. A ladder led up to the raised area; otherwise it was empty. (I made this room for the PCs to fall back to if they needed it.)

They opened a warped and stuck door and moved on, going down a corridor. Off the corridor a side-passage led to another door, this one covered in webs. Umar moved in to investigate and the floor collapsed beneath his feet, revealing a pit filled with thousands of hungry spiders! Luckily he was quick and lept back.

Aiden had the smart idea of using the ladder to span the gap and they crossed easily. Then Keiva burned the webs away from the door and they entered.

This room was covered in webs and they spotted some ettercaps prowling around in the shadows. The fight was on.

Umar moved in, got paralyzed by the ettercap's poison. One of the ettercaps spun a web to block off the other PCs, but Keiva set this on fire and it burned.

The PCs tangled with the ettercaps, Umar taking some hurt, but things were going their way. Then two deathjump spiders leapt into the room and put some hurt on the PCs. Aiden fell, as did Umar.

The webspinner fled to the next room with only a few hit points left as the PCs dealt with the spiders and finished off the ettercap guards. The deathjump spiders were eating Aiden's face, landing a bunch of lucky hits.

The webspinner chittered to its friend in another room and another deathjump spider and a bloodweb spider swarm came to face the PCs, followed by a fresh ettercap webspinner.

Sharmok and Umar blocked the entrance to the room after the spider brought Aiden down again. The swarm did its magic and gave Umar and Sharmok a hard time. Things weren't looking too good. Shamon moved up to help with some healing but he couldn't keep either one of the men on their feet. Umar went down hard and started failing death saves.

However, the swarm was taking a lot of damage from all these attacks from Hekubus' Divine Challenge, and the Ettercap was getting pincushioned from Aiden. Keiva kept plugging away at the swarm for half damage and it was all adding up.

Shamon got lucky and was missed by the ettercap and the swarm multiple times. Finally, with Umar having failed two death saves, Keiva put down the swarm and Aiden killed the webspinner. Hekubus fed Umar a potion and kept him from dying.

That was that. They found some treasure (and missed some), and found a pair of "people" webbed up (and a few more turning into ettercaps, too far gone to save). We ended the game there, leaving me time to decide what kind of creatures those guys are going to be for next time.

Tough fight, but a little to static; all the combat took place near a doorway. Oh well. The dragon fight was cool, even though the dragon was a pushover; the terrain made it interesting. This one took place in an empty room, and I was stupid because I didn't use the other door in the room (I thought it was closed and spiders don't open doors but it was open - just filled with webs). I blame the migraine.

Hekubus' player (two_fishes) said I should use more traps, ones that affect both PCs and NPCs. I think I will, but I won't always give XP for those kinds of traps (they make it easier on the PCs). That was one of the reasons why I didn't use them before.

I am also getting frustrated with how much real-world time the fights are taking; it leaves little time for exploration. I don't find them grindy, just taking up too much time. I have an idea for that, though - some kind of skill challenge to quickly resolve encounters, using the battlemap for the big, exciting ones. That will require some hacking, and may be very cool.

 

[LostSoul]

We played tonight. It was a good game, interesting, but a little frustrating near the end.

The game started off with the PCs rescuing a couple of Kenku (Jenku and Sisku?) from the ettercap's lair. They were slaves who escaped the demonic gnolls deeper in the "sunken city" and had roosted in the wall of a large chasm. There were 12 of them in total and they invited the PCs back to their roost to share some grubs. (They are raising a purple worm larvae they found and plan to feast on it once it reaches the limit of their ability to contain it.)

The PCs got a chance to rest before heading back up to the surface. Jenku asked to go along with them, to see the outside world. Aiden and Kieva went to pay a tab at another bar, taking Jenku with them, while the rest of the PCs headed to the Nentir Inn... where Kelson and what was left of the River Rats were waiting for them.

Kelson told Hekubus he needed to pay a fine for leaving the River Rats. Kelson figured his "invisible sword" would do fine. Hekubus told him he would see him dead before he paid him a cent. Roll for initiative.

Hekubus took a pounding and the rabble Kelson brought along with him slowed down the PCs a bit. The now-healed Grug and Fargarson Vilebrew, along with expert crossbowman Otto gave Hekubus a hard time, dropping him.

(Grug, being the bartender, had a couple booze-related powers: he could toss a keg of ale, dealing damage in an area and "soaking the target in booze". That gave them fire vulnerability; Grug also could take a swig of some vile brew and light it, breathing a gout of flame.)

Hekubus was brought back up on his feet by a magical word from Shamon and they beat down on Kelson and his lackies, winning the fight.

Shamon asked Kelson why they should let him live; he told them that Markelhay was in his pocket and he'd come after the PCs if they killed him. Plus, he had the body of Hrogar and the PCs would never recover it if they killed him. So they let him go. But not before Hekubus chopped off Kelson's hand in retribution, telling him he'd cut the other one off if he ever crossed paths with Hekubus again.

Kelson went back to his tavern and sent the PCs a note telling them where Hrogar's body was - sold to Orest Naerumar, the tiefling who's been buying all the corpses his men have been digging up.

Shamon quickly whipped up a disguise, making himself look like an acolyte of Orcus and went to talk to Naerumar. His disguise worked but Naerumar was suspicious: "Who are you? I've never seen you before." Shamon fast-talked him and Naerumar led him into a secret cellar where he kept the bodies before selling them to the death cultists.

Naerumar asked for double for the corpse of Hrogar, since it was so fresh. Shamon refused, saying it had been cursed by a Paladin (Hekubus had cast Gentle Repose on it) and told Naerumar that he had screwed up. So badly, in fact, that he should give him the dwarf for free. Naerumar bargained him down to 50gp, which Shamon reluctantly paid.

When Shamon didn't buy the other corpses, saying he'd be back for them later, Naerumar became very suspicious. After Shamon left he closed up shop and went to talk to Kelson.

The PCs knew something was going on but not what. They did some investigative work:

Aiden and Kieva went to the Lucky Gnome Taphouse and tried to listen in on things (they had not fought the River Rats), hearing nothing - but they did follow Kelson to Moonstone Keep. Aiden attempted to climb the outer wall to try to listen in on any conversation Kelson was having, but he failed to climb the smooth, dwarven- and eladrin-built wall.

Umar spoke with the guards near the Wizard's Gate, just beside Orest Naerumar's place; he found out that one of the guards had relatives in Winterhaven and would visit them every month, and he had just left.

Sharok turned into a mangy, flea-bitten dog and kept watch on Orest's place.

Hekubus and Shamon went to speak with the Raven Roost bandits (gnomes, elves, dark ones, worshippers of the Raven Queen) to ask if they had seen any cultist activity. They had; they spotted a group of them coming down the King's Road from the north, camping in the Moon Hills, and were planning on spying on them to see what they were up to.

Something was going on but the PCs didn't know how it all fit together. Kieva decided to confront Kelson, posing as an agent of Orcus. She claimed that things had gone wrong, something about a cursed body, and Kelson was going to take the blame for it. Beaten down as he was, still clutching a bloody stump, Kelson was no match for her quick wit; he bought her story.

He took her her back to the Lucky Gnome where they could talk in private. He tried to pin all the blame on Hekubus, hoping to get the cult to fight for him. Of course this didn't work. Kieva tried to figure out where Markelhay stood in all this mess; Kelson said that Markelhay was in his pocket and he'd get the Lord Warden to take care of Hekubus for him. She noticed (through a good Insight check) that he glanced at a painting on the wall when he said this.

The two of them decided they needed to move against Hekubus; Kelson figured they should get Naerumar in on their plan. Followed by Aiden, they passed by Sharok in dog-form and Umar, none of whom were spotted. Sharok sent an animal messenger (he may have done this earlier, actually) to Hekubus and Shamon to tell them what was going on and call them to action.

Kieva spoke with Naerumar through his warded door; he was very suspicious, seeing two new death cultists in town raised his suspicions. Kieva responded that she had come to pick up the rest of the bodies. This very reasonable response allayed his concerns and he opened the door.

At which point Umar came barrelling into him, knocking him back into his shop.

Kieva moved into the shop, keeping up her disguise, while Aiden and Umar moved in to fight Orest Naerumar. He told his homonculi guardians to attack the intruders, while Kelson slipped in, running in fear from Hekubus, Shamon, and Sharok outside.

The homonculi (4 stonefist defenders and 1 arbalester) attacked, focusing on Umar, and Kelson got a powerful blow in on him as well. But by then the rest of the PCs had entered the shop. Hekubus cowed Kelson into surrender, Naerumar and the homonculi were cast in a heap in the corner of the room, stunned, and soon his stonefist defenders had all been slain. When Sharok bounded past him to cut off his escape, Naerumar surrendered to the PCs.

The PCs spared his life, locking him up in his cellar, planning to use him when the real death cultists show up.

They also got quite a bit of loot from his shop - 2000 gp, 500 gp in each reagent type, and 2000 gp worth of level 1-4 consumable magic items (scrolls, potions, etc.) and wondrous items. I let the players choose which ones they want because I don't feel like taking the time to stat it all up!


That was a cool session, lots of neat exploration and stuff. The frustrating part was that last fight; by rights, a level 6 encounter for 6 PCs (Orest was a lvl 8 elite, Kelson with 1/4 of his HP only worth 100 XP or so) but the PCs just blew right through it. Naerumar never really had a chance to do anything!

I'm not sure why I was so frustrated; I guess I just wanted the NPCs to do better, which is a bad way to look at things. Luckily I didn't make any stupid calls or anything like that. I'm not sure what the issue is, I just don't know why that last fight was such a cakewalk. I'm struggling with how to make this campaign interesting and challenging when it's not all in a dungeon (when extended rests are hard to come by), still maintain consistency and integrity in the campaign world, and challenge the PCs on a long-term, strategic level.

That is, the PCs should be able to "nova" and blow out a challenging encounter, but I want them to be able to do that only through their own smart choices; being able to "nova" and turn challenging encounters into cakewalks shouldn't be the normal state of things. But if I throw in 3+ encounters every day, that doesn't make any sense and means their choices don't matter.

I could decide, "Oh, the cultists are coming that night," but eh, I had already decided that they weren't going to. I would just be doing that to make things hard on them, and I don't want to do that; I just want to play the world. (Designing the world to be hard and challenging on them, of course.) If I'm just making things challenging on them no matter what, it means they can't make smart choices and reap the benefits of those choices.

I think I might want to house rule that extended rests take a week. Or maybe just slow down the rate at which healing surges are recovered. Because even if they are able to "nova" with their dailies, if they are counting healing surges there's still some tension.

 

[Spatula]

I saw a suggestion (I think it was attributed to Jonathen Tweet) that extended rests be tied to milestones instead of day/night cycles, specifically to combat the issue of PCs going "nova" when there's only 1 encounter a day. Something like, players have to hit a milestone (or two) before they can take an extended rest.

 

[LostSoul]

We played again tonight; 6 PCs again. We concluded the goings-on in Fallcrest with investigative work.

After some discussion we finally settled on 2 healing surges per night OR a daily power recharge. We'll see how that works. So far I'm pretty happy with it; it meant the PCs stayed in Fallcrest for a week to heal up, and already I can see implications in the game world.

So: the game. After the PCs looted Orest Naerumar's store, they heard a heavy knock on the door. It's the dwarven guard seargent Murgeddin, veteran of the Bloodspear War. He wants to know what the hell is going on.

Hekubus answers: "We're preparing for an ancient tiefling celebration. Please get the hell out of here, this is delicate stuff and I don't want you screwing it up."

I have in my notes: This is a good place for a skill challenge. So I figure, let's go with it, and see how it turns out. Hekubus rolls Intimidate, with a bonus for being trained in Bluff, and succeeds.

Murgeddin responds: "That may be so, but I have to check on things. Where's Orest? Can I talk to him?" At which point Shamon steps out of the shop and starts playing a tune, distracting Murgeddin and his detachment. Shamon spins some lies about watching the store for Orest while he's gone, and they buy it. (Bluff success.)

But Murgeddin still wants to have a look just to make sure, he doesn't want to let Orest down. So he heads in. The other PCs have been furiously cleaning things up - luckily the fight was against constructs, so there's little blood, mostly gears and lumps of clay strewn around, and a few small fires burning.

Sharmok spots a bloodstain they missed earlier and gets Hekubus to stand on it when Murgeddin steps in. (Perception success.) Murgeddin looks around sees things are okay, and Hekubus calmly asks him to leave, "Because the ritual has been ruined now." (Diplomacy with a +2 for being trained in Bluff? success.) Murgeddin shrugs and leaves.

The PCs interrogate Orest a bit. He's reasonably talkative (after an Intimidate check), telling the PCs what he knows: the death cultists come soon after the full moon; he's contacted by one of their agents and then they use a secret tunnel that leads from his cellar to out of town to unload the bodies. There's also some talk about Sgt. Gerdrand, who normally works at the nearby gate, but often leaves for Winterhaven "to visit relatives"; he actually doesn't, he works with the cult.

That taken care of, the PCs turn to Kelson and try to figure out what he's got on Markelhay. Hekubus, Shamon, Umar, and Kieva head off with him to the Lucky Gnome Taphouse. Once they get there, Kelson gives a subtle nod to one of his few remaining men; that guy enters Kelson's room, grabs a note, and takes off through a window to see Armos Kelroth.

(The note tells Armos what to do with the evidence. Armos would love to run Fallcrest, so he'd follow through with it.)

The PCs pick up on Kelson's subtle nod (Insight success); they also spot a couple of seedy guys in the taphouse who seem a little too interested in what's going on; it's more of a professional interest than the curious looks the drunks and whores are giving the PCs. Shamon decides to keep an eye on them, so he takes the stage and begins to perform.

The other PCs head up to Kelson's room and see the open window but spot no trace of Kelson's man (Perception failure). Kelson tries to spin some lies but they are easily seen through (Insight success). Hekubus sits him down and grabs a finger. "Tell me what you have on Markelhay or else." Kelson tries to lie his way out of it, making vague threats, and Hekubus cuts off a finger. A successful Intimidate check means Kelson starts spilling his guts.

He tells the PCs that Markelhay's son killed a young lady of the night in the Lucky Gnome. Kelson worked with Markelhay to clean up the crime, but he kept the head. That's what he's got, and he knows that there are rituals that will allow someone to see the last few moments of her life.

The PCs believe that Kelson's man took the head and ran off with it; Kelson isn't saying anything, though the PCs know he's holding something back (Insight success). But the PCs know there was a safe or something behind a painting, though when they search they can't find it (Perception failure). Umar takes his axe to the wall and strikes steel; they pry away the boards to reveal a safe.

Umar also detects a trap on the safe. None of them are skilled in Thievery, so they make Kelson disarm it. He doesn't have the key - it was sent to Armos - so, one-handed and with 4 fingers, he attempts to pick his own safe. He succeeds without triggering the trap.

They see the head and decide to take it back to Markelhay.

When they head downstairs they see that Shamon and the two strangers have gone. Shamon followed them out the door, all the way to the Wizard's Gate and beyond. Shamon followed them until they left the road and went somewhere in the Moon Hills, at which point he returned.

Hekubus met Markelhay with a group of armed men, including Janos, the emissary from the Knights of Nerath. Hekubus asks for a moment alone with Markelhay; Janos tells him not to listen to this scum. Hekubus alludes to the fact that he has the evidence, so Markelhay takes Hekubus into his castle (Diplomacy success).

Alone in the stables, Hekubus opens the safe. Markelhay knows what it means. Hekubus asks Markelhay to turn a blind eye to some of the things that have been going on over the past few days; "I've been turning a blind eye to things that have been going on over the past few years!" Markelhay responds. Then Markelhay takes the safe.

Ding ding! Quest XP.

The PCs all meet up back in the shop and decide to wait for the cultists to come and ambush them. Aiden, an elven ranger, can't put up with the smell of the rotting corpses, so he spends the night in a tree just outside the Wizard's Gate.

The night passes uneventfully. We hadn't yet decided on what to do with Extended Rests, so the PCs didn't get anything back.

The next day Hekubus gets Hrogar raised at the Temple of Erathis. The dwarf is angry and sullen, and decides that adventuring isn't for him. Death will do that to you. He offers to run Orest's shop to work off the debt he owes Hekubus for returning him back to the World.

Jenku the Kenku also visits the PCs. He's been perched on top of one of the towers of Moonstone Keep, watching things. He saw Kelson take off towards the west. (Otto, one of Kelson's lieutenants, tells Hekubus later that Kelson probably went to join the bandits who are camped out on the Gardsbury Downs. "Sorry about shooting you in the spleen," Otto says. "I hope everything's good between us." "Just don't cross me again," Hekubus replies.) Looking for work, Jenku offers to run the Lucky Gnome for the PCs, bringing in the rest of his flock. The PCs agree.

(The PCs decided that they wanted to run these businesses after I told them how I was going to resolve it: give the business a level, make a check each fiscal quarter, success = a monetary treasure packet of that level, failure = a loss of 1/2 that. Orest's store is level 8; I figure the Lucky Gnome is probably level 2, level 3 with illegal activity.)

That night, Sharmok and Aiden are keeping watch in the tree outside the Wizard's Gate. They spot a tiefling attempting to sneak past the guards at the gate (Perception success vs. Stealth failure; one of the many 1s I rolled tonight), so Sharmok sends a bat to alert the PCs.

As the bat flies into the shop through the chimney, Taeroth Naerumar, Orest's brother and cultist of Orcus, enters the room. This alerts Hekubus thanks to the Chime of Warding they had placed there.

Hekubus throws on Orest's cloak and heads upstairs, trying to pass himself off as Orest. Bluff vs. Insight; Hekubus rolls a 17. Taeroth has a +11 modifier, and I figure a +5 bonus is about right. I roll another 1. Heh. "Orest, what's going on? Are you sick? You sound like you have a cold." (As a general rule, I give ties to the PCs. Not always, though.)

Hekubus convinces Taeroth to come downstairs - Taeroth first - at which point he sees his brother with Shamon's knife to his neck. "Assassins! Orcus will have your souls!" he screams, and sends a swarm of skeletal snakes at Hekubus. Fortunatly for Hek they're just illusions. Unfortunately he doesn't see through it and they bite at his eyeballs.

At this point I say, "Let's not pull out the battlemap or any of that; if you guys hit him 4 times he's dead."

Umar charges at swings at him and misses; since I misread the Tiefling Heretic's power, he teleports past Hekubus into the middle of the shop, upstairs. (It should activate only on a hit.) Shamon rushes up the stairs to block the door; Hekubus teleports to the door to block it, and Tieva misses him with an eldtritch blast.

Taeroth blasts Hekubus with Balefire but misses (not like it would hurt him anyways). He moves closer to the door. Shamon and Umar miss him, but Hekubus and Tieva hit with ranged attacks. (At this point I'm using the right teleport power.)

Then Taeroth moves past Shamon and Hekubus, since Hekubus stepped back to avoid an OA. Shamon hits him, and I think, good, I can teleport now; of course, you can't use immediate actions on your turn, so it doesn't work. Hekubus hits him with his OA and they tie him up and take him into the cellar next to his brother.

Nice, quick little combat.

Meanwhile, Aiden and Sharok attempt to follow Taeroth's tracks back to his camp. The Moon Hills aren't "loose dirt", but they aren't "wood or stone", so I use DC 20. Sharok aids Aiden with his excellent sense of nature, locating plants that have been tread upon. Since Aiden is trained in Nature I give him a +2 bonus to his Perception roll. They get a 19. They follow the tracks for a while, but lose the trail in the scrub of the Moon Hills.

They spend a few hours trying to find the camp and finally do locate it (no roll needed, they had some campfires going), then send a bat to alert the other PCs.

Back at the shop, while Aiden and Sharok are searching for the camp, they do a little bit of interrogation. Hekubus realizes that Taeroth would rather die than provide any information (Insight success). The PCs debate about whether or not to kill him; they decide to let him escape and follow him back to his camp. Taeroth sees through their Bluff but decides to go anyways.

Shamon, being a half-elf with low-light vision, shadows Taeroth and Orest. Behind him follow Hekubus and Tieva. This way only Shamon has to make a Stealth check, but he can get no Aid. He succeeds. While following the tiefling brothers, the PCs get a bat message from Sharok, so they know they have an ambush ready.

Taeroth and Orest get into the camp. They've set it up with their backs to a 30' cliff. They have two guards, a couple campfires going, and there are 8 of them. There's a large wagon nearby and two mules tethered to a tree. Aiden is up on the cliff while Sharok is in a nearby tree, completely out of sight. (Aiden had to make a Stealth check while Sharok did not; this meant that only Aiden could get the benefit of surprise.)

Aiden hears Taeroth and Orest talk to the others and he identifies their leader - shaved head, crimson leather armour, wielding a scythe. He also spots Sgt. Gerdrand. Anyways, when the cultists start to put on their armour, he fires two arrows into the nearest one, bloodying him.

The fight is on. The cultists take cover from Aiden, screaming "Assassins!" That leaves them open to Sharok. It takes Hekubus, Umar, and Tieva one round to reach the edge of the battlemat.

The fight is pretty cool, with the PCs spread out, the terrain (hills, a cliff, and a river) being pretty important, and a number of sources of cover. Since the PCs are all spread out they can't coordinate attacks, though the cultists can, and bring Sharok down for a moment. The PCs don't have any daily powers left, since we're using that house rule for Extended Rests.

But since they were ambushed and unarmoured, the cultists go down. The PCs attempt to interrogate the survivors, but they have all been prepared with a ritual: they speak a syllable of the Final Word and have their lives snuffed out.

Aiden relentlessly hunts down Orest, who fled as soon as the combat started. He made a Perception vs. Stealth check; Umar decided to help him track as well, but something about his Aid Another action I didn't like, so when the Perception vs. Stealth roll tied, I gave it to Orest. Eventually Aiden was able to run Orest down. Orest begged for mercy, but Aiden gave him none. (I asked the player if he wanted to run a combat; he said no, so I said, "I'll roll 1d4 and that's how many healing surges you lose." It was 4. I guess he put up a good fight!)

The PCs hang out in town for the rest of the week, recovering from their wounds. They decide to head to Winterhaven to investigate this cult. Hekubus, however, plans to stay in Fallcrest; he was originally from Fallcrest, a member of the River Rats (Kelson's crew) and only left when he ran afoul of Kelson. Now he can make it his home again, renting out a room at the Nentir Inn while overseeing the operation of their two businesses (and the kobolds at Kobold Hall, I guess).

Plus, the player is moving away.

It was a good session. That fight against the cultists was a lot of fun. Not sure why; maybe it was because it was tied to a lot of other stuff, some NPCs with names, the PCs were able to set up an ambush, the terrain was good, and the PCs were split up. I also liked all the maneuvering in town, and all of that had an impact. It was a very tight game.

I am looking forward to seeing how these level 4, nearly 5 PCs deal with the cult in the Cairngorms. I made that dungeon level 8 I think, and there are some really bad-ass guys in there. Plus the undead, animated corpses of the old PCs! (I screwed up in the cultist fight; I should have made their leader one of the old PCs. That would have been awesome.)

I think it'll be a really good test of player skill.

 

[LostSoul]

One thing maybe worth noting - I only asked for skill checks when there were two character in conflict with each other.

 

[LostSoul]

We played again last night. It was the last session for Armok/Hekubus' player, so we started off with a discussion of what the PCs were going to do. Previously they discussed going to Winterhaven to see what was up with the cult there; I put an undead version of Armok in the Keep on the Shadowfell for Hekubus to confront.

Shamon's player had expressed an interest in going to Harken Forest, so I brought that up as a possible course of action. I wasn't sure if I should tell them that I put Armok in the game up near Winterhaven. I didn't want to railroad them. I did anyway though, and the players decided to head off that way.

I rolled some random encounters for the trip to Winterhaven as prep for the game. The first was with a merchant caravan making its rounds through the borderlands; 60 guards and a number of wagons. I didn't set up this scene very well, so there was little roleplay. The PCs bought a few items. The merchants warned them about bandits in the Gardsbury Downs.

That evening they came across two Tigerclaw Barbarians peddlers who were selling furs, travelling down south to Winterhaven. (I figured they were clan outsiders, peddling goods, not really Tigerclaw but part of their society. This never really came up though. Were they worshippers of Tiamat? Maybe.) They had been ambushed by bandits and robbed, a number of their party killed.

They asked to spend the night with the PCs and shared a story. The Tigerclaw Barbarians are planning to go to war in the spring. One of the chieftans seems to be pushing for it all of a sudden - cult activity? (No. I haven't decided what's driving them yet, but it's not Orcus.) The PCs showed the TC Barbs an ancient shield they found in a burial chamber in Fallcrest; the peddlers tried to get the PCs to give it to them so they could take it back and be treated like heroes for returning the ancient relic. The PCs didn't give it to them. In the morning the TCs left.

We'll see if the PCs do anything with the Barbarians.

The next day Aiden, the elf Ranger, spotted a bandit trailing them. He snuck up on him and tried to Intimidate the man into surrender, but failed. He started moving back cautiously. Aiden, an elf, easily kept pace. He gave the bandit one last chance to give up, failed a check, and the man ran off as fast as he could. Aiden cut him down.

Aiden then shadowed the party, and in the evening he noticed about a dozen bandits coming to the road to intercept the party, moving at a pretty good clip. He warned the party using a signal light (his sword) and the PCs set up an ambush of their own.

When the bandits were preparing to attack, Tieva opened up on them first, burning a number of them and wounding their seargent. The bandits moved in on the PCs in three waves, with two crossbowmen providing cover. They were easily cut down.

The seargent (a Human Noble from MM2) did absolutely nothing during the fight; he tried to jump down from a small cliff and failed, landing prone, then was cut down by Umar.

The fight was pretty fun, mostly because of the utter incompetence of the bad guys. We laughed at them, and it gave the PCs a chance to shine. I used regular human bandits as the bulk of the enemy, but made them minions - I just gave them 1 HP, otherwise they were the same. (I also added 2 to all their attacks because human bandits are the suck.)

Onto Winterhaven. Everyone was happy to see them. They heard a rumour that there was something haunting the woods near the ruined Keep - Tibon, a farmer, was found dead with his skin ripped off.

The PCs talked to Tibon's family who was packing up to move south. They showed the PCs the spot where he was killed and described the wounds he suffered - no cuts, claw wounds, no bites; his skin was just missing. The PCs noticed some odd tracks, something making a furrow in the ground like a snake, but they had no idea what caused it.

They followed the tracks; they seemed to be going in a circle around the Keep, but at one point they just lost the trail. They checked for tracks near the Keep's entrance and found a number of footprints and pawprints. Some of the footprints had ice and snow in them. The PCs didn't know what that was about, but they figured something was up to no good in the Keep.

While the PCs were searching about I rolled for a random encounter. The thing that killed Kibon - a forsaken shell - spotted them and, very quietly, started tracking them.

The PCs entered the Keep and went straight for the Shadow Rift. In the Cathedral of Shadows they came across a wight, two skeleton archers, and two zombies decked out in plate armour (dread zombies). The wight acted quickly and immobilized Hekubus, and the zombies moved up to block the PCs in the entrance.

Shamon and Umar were able to push one of the zombies down the pit into the Shadow Rift room, at which point they heard Armok's voice screaming. "Kill them! I must have my soul!" Umar and Aiden rushed at the wight after he tried (but failed) to send Umar fleeing into the pit using his horrific visage. He was quickly cut down.

Then two slithering forsaken shells came down the stairs. Hekubus recognized one as Jace! (Jace was an old PC, played by Umar's player, killed a long time ago; he was tortured to death, his skin flayed, and it was animated by dread necromancy into a forsaken shell. The other one was Tibon. Poor Tibon.) They grabbed onto Hekubus and Sharok and started trying to rip their skin off while dragging them into the pit.

They could also hear the howl of nearly a dozen gravehounds coming at them; Hekubus sent his dire boar to hold them off. I gave them 5 rounds before the boar would be killed.

Umar and Aiden were making pretty good work of the skeleton archers (who could deal quite a bit of damage). The zombies were holding their own with a bare few hit points (the one who had fallen climbed back up the pit). Sharok was getting very low on HP and very close to the pit.

Umar charged the forsaken shell of Jace and ripped it apart. Then a pair of specters appeared from out of nowhere and started assaulting the PC's minds. At one point every single PC was prone!

The PCs, very low on resources, were able to clear out the rest of the undead (one specter fled) and retreat back to save the dire boar with one round to spare. Armok cried out to Hekubus, cursing the name of the Raven Queen, still crying about how he would find his lost soul.

We ended there. It's too bad we didn't get to the fight with Armok.

Armok is a wight now; I statted him up as an NPC wizard, but undead (he has a wight's normal claw attack). He's trying to open the Shadow Rift to get to the Shadowfell so he can reclaim his soul. He's also got a pair of Chillborn Zombies and a pair of Burning Skeletons (I did that so the PCs can push the fire guys into the cold guys and hurt them both). Armok is a cold-based wizard so that should be a tough fight.

There's also a chance to get Armok to stand down and stop fighting; that would be a skill challenge, if the PCs wanted to go for it.

Next time the PCs are going to rest; I'm not exactly sure what Armok is going to do, but I think he might make a move against the PCs. He doesn't have the ability to open the Shadow Rift (he's been there for about a week).