LostSoul
Adventurer
Here is the real update:
We started off with the final encounter in the Chamber of Eyes. The goblin sharpshooters snuck around back through the trap door, while the hobgoblins set up a defensive line - tipping over some tables to get good cover - in front of the human bandits.
What were the bandits doing?
When Wexley the Fighter opened the door, he found out. One of them threw a cask of hobgoblin ale at him and it exploded in his face. Luckily his shield deflected the brunt of the assault.
Then the battle was on. The bandits were the target of Scorching Bursts and other area powers (negating cover). They were able to get off another cask before Bren the Bold, our heroic Rogue, threw a torch at the cask and had it explode behind their ranks!
The hobgoblins could not hit anything, I was rolling suck for the casks, and even with CA the sharpshooters couldn't hit the Wizard. It didn't go well for me. I think it was over in 3 rounds.
The last man standing tried to flee and was critically hit as he passed through the line-of-sight of Bren the Bold. Very cool.
The goblins knew what was going on when the hobgoblin shouted, "Alert Murkelmor! Tell him they are coming!" Goblins being goblins, they were already off.
The first goblin opened the door leading out of the Chamber of Eyes and was slain by the Warlock. The second goblin saw his chance and ran past the first (thanks for opening the door, see you in hell) and kept sprinting away.
Jace the Warlock ran out to stop him, but because he was running at top speed his Eldritch Blast missed. He burned an AP and set up the Hunger of Hadar in front of the goblin - who screamed and ran through it, surviving.
The sneaky little goblin then made a Hide roll vs. the Warlock's Perception and easily beat it.
The PCs then picked up the goblin's trail and started tracking him through the dungeon. We were going to run a skill challenge - 3 successes needed to find the goblin, each failure meant a random encounter.
The first was a Perception check vs. Stealth. I rolled a 31 for the goblin and the PCs got a 17 or so.
Random encounter time!
In my spare time, I wrote up a little dungeon lair - two level 4 encounters and one level 5 to replace the ones the PCs had already been through (hyenas, dwarf king, gelatinous cube & wraiths). The PC's approach was determined by the d10 random encounter roll.
2 - they entered from the north-west.
They spotted a bridge heading north-south, 30' above the east-west corridor they were on. A rope hung from the bridge. Ahead they could see dim light.
They couldn't tell which way the goblin had run, so they split up - Malchior the Warlord and Jace the Warlock climbed the rope and went south down the passage while the other PCs headed east to check out the light.
The air was strangely thick, humid and sticky. Armok Zed the Wizard tried to figure out what was up, but failed. (It was a sign that there was a portal to the Feywild nearby.)
Down the south passage, they heard the roar of a waterfall and a corridor branching east. They took the east corridor into an empty room full of vines. Well, the room was empty now; just moments ago a goblin had been watching them approach. He ran off to tell his Underboss.
The other PCs found a door and went in. They found a corridor running south. Near the end of the corridor they found a door, and just before it they noticed a strange pattern of light and shadow on the floor around it. (DC 15 Perception check.)
When they approached the light, they got some boiling oil dumped on them. Wexley the Fighter got his shield up in time, Bren the Bold leapt out of the way, but Armok Zed the Wizard was scalded to the tune of 21 hit points.
They burst down the doors and entered a dark room - but their lights flared brightly for some odd reason (a random event on my little chart) and Armok Zed was slightly dazed by the light (-2 to attacks until the end of his next turn).
The room was square. There was a large covered pit in the middle. Pillars coated with grasping vines held up a rickety balcony. Up on the balcony were three doors, on the south, west, and east walls. Two staircases went up to the balcony. (Hmm, on second thought, I wouldn't have put the stairs in if I were to design this encounter again. I'd just have ruins or something.)
Malchior and Jace came through the south door just about then.
Armok Zed won initiative and ran up the stairs and pulled a lever. Which opened the pit. From which they heard a loud, angry roar.
Elves started coming out of the doors, one with a bow, fancy cloak, and shiny bracers. Let's call him Fancy Pants. He had two elf scout allies and a goblin minion with him.
Armok Zed got wasted here, but Malchior struck back with a burst of fire that blew apart the balcony and dumped the elves on the ground.
Then the bear was out and swatted at the Wexley the Fighter, who just pushed the bear back into the pit.
The fight went well for the PCs, and soon only the bear was left standing. It had a chain on it, so Malchior sounded the retreat.
This is when the goblins showed up. Wexley got hit with a Hex that would damage him if he moved, so he had to stay in melee with the bear. The Underboss moved to engage Armok Zed (who had been Inspired to get up by Malchior) and dropped him.
The goblin sharpshooters did some damage and managed to avoid the counterattack by the PCs.
Things were tense; Armok Zed was on the ground making Death Saves while the Underboss focused on Malchior (who was down to 7 hp with no Surges). The Hexer kept zapping them with nasty spells.
And about this time I rolled on my random event table, getting "Random Encounter joins the fight - same entrance as the PCs."
I had the PCs roll the d10 of Doom and luckily they got a 1 - a level 4 encounter. The easiest one. So 4 rotwing zombies and a deathlock wight heard the noise, desired flesh, and started coming up the hallway.
The bear was dead by now, so Wexley jammed the door shut and held it tight. Bren the Bold was up on the level above, and there was still a cauldron of unused boiling oil just sitting there, waiting for him.
He dumped it on the undead and did some serious damage. (Should have added Sneak Attack damage, too. Whoops.)
The zombies eventually burst down the door and mobbed Wexley. One of them charged at the Hexer, which took the goblin's attention away from Malchior.
And then Armok Zed rolled a natural 20 on his Death Save - first time that's happened to me in 4e! - and got back up.
Soon the zombies had all died (again) and the goblins were facing the full brunt of the PC's attacks. Only one sharpshooter was alive, the Hexer was nearly Bloodied, and the Underboss was Bloodied. They retreated - "Warn the master! Warn Greenfang!"
Who is a Dragon.
The PCs searched the rooms until they spotted the dragon symbol carved in the wall, and then they ran back for the Seven-Pillared Hall.
They all gained levels here, going up to 6th. Next time they will face the duergar in the Horned Hold - who are aware of the PCs, and will be ready for them.
Next time: Because the PCs are a higher level than expected, and because the Horned Hold is aware of them, I am going to try and mess with them.
What I want to do is get the PCs into room 13 (The Great Hall, where Rundarr is), and then have the duergar sneak around back behind them. Then, when the PCs cross the bridge, I will open up on them from behind the doors, from across the other bridge, and I'll have orcs and duergar come up from behind them.
That's the plan, at least. I am pretty sure it won't go as planned.
The PCs might also choose to come up from the back entrance, although it will mean more random encounters, and they might not be able to find it.
Now if it does go as planned and the PCs are screwed, I think I will change the 300' to certain doom depth of the crevasse. I'll put some water down there - a stream - and change the damage. 5d10 sounds right. I'll also add some random item loss.
How does that sound?
edit: Maybe a skill challenge is what I want here, because I really don't want to kill them if they jump off - it's that cool. So first I'll sap some healing surges, damage taken if they have none left, then have them make checks to stay alive in the current. Failed rolls mean losing Healing Surges and items.
I'd also like some random events to happen, or maybe encounter triggers. Stuff like this:
Roll 1d6 each round. On a 1, a swarm of thousands of bats flies through the chasm. They offer heavy concealment to everyone on the bridge squares, and attack (+9 vs. AC, 1d6+5 damage).
On a 2...
On a 3...
etc.
And other stuff, like if Rundarr is Bloodied X happens, etc.
We started off with the final encounter in the Chamber of Eyes. The goblin sharpshooters snuck around back through the trap door, while the hobgoblins set up a defensive line - tipping over some tables to get good cover - in front of the human bandits.
What were the bandits doing?
When Wexley the Fighter opened the door, he found out. One of them threw a cask of hobgoblin ale at him and it exploded in his face. Luckily his shield deflected the brunt of the assault.
Then the battle was on. The bandits were the target of Scorching Bursts and other area powers (negating cover). They were able to get off another cask before Bren the Bold, our heroic Rogue, threw a torch at the cask and had it explode behind their ranks!
The hobgoblins could not hit anything, I was rolling suck for the casks, and even with CA the sharpshooters couldn't hit the Wizard. It didn't go well for me. I think it was over in 3 rounds.
The last man standing tried to flee and was critically hit as he passed through the line-of-sight of Bren the Bold. Very cool.
The goblins knew what was going on when the hobgoblin shouted, "Alert Murkelmor! Tell him they are coming!" Goblins being goblins, they were already off.
The first goblin opened the door leading out of the Chamber of Eyes and was slain by the Warlock. The second goblin saw his chance and ran past the first (thanks for opening the door, see you in hell) and kept sprinting away.
Jace the Warlock ran out to stop him, but because he was running at top speed his Eldritch Blast missed. He burned an AP and set up the Hunger of Hadar in front of the goblin - who screamed and ran through it, surviving.
The sneaky little goblin then made a Hide roll vs. the Warlock's Perception and easily beat it.
The PCs then picked up the goblin's trail and started tracking him through the dungeon. We were going to run a skill challenge - 3 successes needed to find the goblin, each failure meant a random encounter.
The first was a Perception check vs. Stealth. I rolled a 31 for the goblin and the PCs got a 17 or so.
Random encounter time!
In my spare time, I wrote up a little dungeon lair - two level 4 encounters and one level 5 to replace the ones the PCs had already been through (hyenas, dwarf king, gelatinous cube & wraiths). The PC's approach was determined by the d10 random encounter roll.
2 - they entered from the north-west.
They spotted a bridge heading north-south, 30' above the east-west corridor they were on. A rope hung from the bridge. Ahead they could see dim light.
They couldn't tell which way the goblin had run, so they split up - Malchior the Warlord and Jace the Warlock climbed the rope and went south down the passage while the other PCs headed east to check out the light.
The air was strangely thick, humid and sticky. Armok Zed the Wizard tried to figure out what was up, but failed. (It was a sign that there was a portal to the Feywild nearby.)
Down the south passage, they heard the roar of a waterfall and a corridor branching east. They took the east corridor into an empty room full of vines. Well, the room was empty now; just moments ago a goblin had been watching them approach. He ran off to tell his Underboss.
The other PCs found a door and went in. They found a corridor running south. Near the end of the corridor they found a door, and just before it they noticed a strange pattern of light and shadow on the floor around it. (DC 15 Perception check.)
When they approached the light, they got some boiling oil dumped on them. Wexley the Fighter got his shield up in time, Bren the Bold leapt out of the way, but Armok Zed the Wizard was scalded to the tune of 21 hit points.
They burst down the doors and entered a dark room - but their lights flared brightly for some odd reason (a random event on my little chart) and Armok Zed was slightly dazed by the light (-2 to attacks until the end of his next turn).
The room was square. There was a large covered pit in the middle. Pillars coated with grasping vines held up a rickety balcony. Up on the balcony were three doors, on the south, west, and east walls. Two staircases went up to the balcony. (Hmm, on second thought, I wouldn't have put the stairs in if I were to design this encounter again. I'd just have ruins or something.)
Malchior and Jace came through the south door just about then.
Armok Zed won initiative and ran up the stairs and pulled a lever. Which opened the pit. From which they heard a loud, angry roar.
Elves started coming out of the doors, one with a bow, fancy cloak, and shiny bracers. Let's call him Fancy Pants. He had two elf scout allies and a goblin minion with him.
Armok Zed got wasted here, but Malchior struck back with a burst of fire that blew apart the balcony and dumped the elves on the ground.
Then the bear was out and swatted at the Wexley the Fighter, who just pushed the bear back into the pit.
The fight went well for the PCs, and soon only the bear was left standing. It had a chain on it, so Malchior sounded the retreat.
This is when the goblins showed up. Wexley got hit with a Hex that would damage him if he moved, so he had to stay in melee with the bear. The Underboss moved to engage Armok Zed (who had been Inspired to get up by Malchior) and dropped him.
The goblin sharpshooters did some damage and managed to avoid the counterattack by the PCs.
Things were tense; Armok Zed was on the ground making Death Saves while the Underboss focused on Malchior (who was down to 7 hp with no Surges). The Hexer kept zapping them with nasty spells.
And about this time I rolled on my random event table, getting "Random Encounter joins the fight - same entrance as the PCs."
I had the PCs roll the d10 of Doom and luckily they got a 1 - a level 4 encounter. The easiest one. So 4 rotwing zombies and a deathlock wight heard the noise, desired flesh, and started coming up the hallway.
The bear was dead by now, so Wexley jammed the door shut and held it tight. Bren the Bold was up on the level above, and there was still a cauldron of unused boiling oil just sitting there, waiting for him.
He dumped it on the undead and did some serious damage. (Should have added Sneak Attack damage, too. Whoops.)
The zombies eventually burst down the door and mobbed Wexley. One of them charged at the Hexer, which took the goblin's attention away from Malchior.
And then Armok Zed rolled a natural 20 on his Death Save - first time that's happened to me in 4e! - and got back up.
Soon the zombies had all died (again) and the goblins were facing the full brunt of the PC's attacks. Only one sharpshooter was alive, the Hexer was nearly Bloodied, and the Underboss was Bloodied. They retreated - "Warn the master! Warn Greenfang!"
Who is a Dragon.
The PCs searched the rooms until they spotted the dragon symbol carved in the wall, and then they ran back for the Seven-Pillared Hall.
They all gained levels here, going up to 6th. Next time they will face the duergar in the Horned Hold - who are aware of the PCs, and will be ready for them.
Next time: Because the PCs are a higher level than expected, and because the Horned Hold is aware of them, I am going to try and mess with them.
What I want to do is get the PCs into room 13 (The Great Hall, where Rundarr is), and then have the duergar sneak around back behind them. Then, when the PCs cross the bridge, I will open up on them from behind the doors, from across the other bridge, and I'll have orcs and duergar come up from behind them.
That's the plan, at least. I am pretty sure it won't go as planned.
The PCs might also choose to come up from the back entrance, although it will mean more random encounters, and they might not be able to find it.
Now if it does go as planned and the PCs are screwed, I think I will change the 300' to certain doom depth of the crevasse. I'll put some water down there - a stream - and change the damage. 5d10 sounds right. I'll also add some random item loss.
How does that sound?
edit: Maybe a skill challenge is what I want here, because I really don't want to kill them if they jump off - it's that cool. So first I'll sap some healing surges, damage taken if they have none left, then have them make checks to stay alive in the current. Failed rolls mean losing Healing Surges and items.
I'd also like some random events to happen, or maybe encounter triggers. Stuff like this:
Roll 1d6 each round. On a 1, a swarm of thousands of bats flies through the chasm. They offer heavy concealment to everyone on the bridge squares, and attack (+9 vs. AC, 1d6+5 damage).
On a 2...
On a 3...
etc.
And other stuff, like if Rundarr is Bloodied X happens, etc.
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