Played last night. Two weeks ago we played a one-shot because one of the players was out of town. I got to wreak havoc with a Wizard.
So last night: We began with a fight with the "Knights of Nerath", a group of mercenaries who are little more than thugs who've laid claim to the legacy of ancient Nerath. They're led by Sir Kaldor, a landless knight.
Some background: [sblock]Padraig, Lord of Winterhaven, was accepting bribes from Kalarel, a Scion of Orcus. Padraig wouldn't investigate the Keep on the Shadowfell and Kalarel would leave Winterhaven alone. (Kalarel didn't, but that's what you get for dealing with EVIL.)
The PCs discovered this, and once Kalarel was taken care of and the Shadow Rift was closed, they put Padraig to trial - saving him from the townspeople who were out for blood.
The PCs also asked for some aid to help stop Kalarel but realized they didn't have time to wait for reinforcements. Before these reinforcements came, the PCs left for Thunderspire in order to save some enslaved townspeople.
Sir Kaldor was the one who answered the call and he's been setting up shop in Winterhaven, hoping to become its de facto Lord.[/sblock]
The fight starts because Sir Kaldor told the PCs they were criminals who had no right to judge a noble lord, and Malchior (who does have noble blood and believes in noblesse oblige) won't stand for it.
I set up a battlemat and lay down two dozen guys. Most are lvl 7 Minions, Kaldor's a level 8 Elite Soldier, and there are a handful of human guards and a pair of human mages.
Kaldor rides a mount - it's part of his statblock. I also put a line in to deal with what happens if he's dismounted or if his horse is attacked. (He doesn't get to use his Hoof Smash power or his Brutal Charge.)
Bren the Bold, our Rogue, wins Init like normal and targets the horse. One Daily attack power and the horse is dead.
The fight's on; Kaldor and the guards create a bottleneck, trying to focus on Malchior, while the archers rain down death. I'm rolling like crap for the archers but things aren't going too bad for me.
Then Kaldor gets absolutely creamed, Armok puts up a Wall of Fog to block the archers, and Bren slips into Winterhaven just before they close the gate. The archers and mages ready to shoot at anyone who crosses through the Wall of Fog, but Bren breaks into their ranks and one-shot kills a Mage (by some fancy swashbuckling, drops her into a vat of boiling oil).
At this point I've got low-level guys and minions left, Bren makes an awesome Intimidate check, and they surrender.
There's quite a lot a party can do when they know they only have to face the one encounter.
In town, they deal with a few issues - they take Kaldor and Padraig and write up ransom letters for them, they recruit a few of the "Knights of Nerath" to bolster the Winterhaven Regulars, and they pass out arms and armour to the people in town. There's a party in the streets as the slaves are returned from Thunderspire.
They hack their Bloodrope to pieces before it can slip away and kill again. There was talk about trying to tie it to a tree to become an executioner, but they decided it was more trouble than it was worth.
They send a message to Orontar to see how he dealt with Paldemar. There was no reply.
They find a message from an
Animal Messenger:
Kaldor -
Shadow Rift sealed. Encountered an acolyte of Orcus and skeleton servants; we subdued him but he spoke a word of power that robbed him of his life before we could get any information from him. Will return in the morning.
Endinomar the Fastidious
It seems that Kaldor sent some men to the Keep to check up on things. The PCs misinterpret this message; they think Endinomar is taking credit for their work. He actually went down to check on the Shadow Rift, found it sealed, and found a cultist down there and killed him. (These Orcus cultists are under the effects of a Ritual; they can speak a syllable of the "Last Word" and it will kill them. This cultist, an Acolyte, was also checking up on the Shadow Rift, to report back to his masters.)
The PCs wait for Endinomar to show up, but he's travelling with an assassin who notices that something's out of place and they hide, wait, and watch. The PCs head into the Keep to explore it, find marks of recent activity, but when they try to pick up Endinomar's trail they lose it on the muddy road.
Since we're changing how the campaign works, there was a bit of, "Okay, what do you guys want to do now?" They weren't really sure, so I pulled out my random "Rumours" table, had them make a Streetwise check, and they got a few results:
The dead walk again in the Cairngorms.
A noble lord is trying to raise mercenaries in Fallcrest for an expedition into the Temple of Yellow Skulls.
The Valley of the Dead (in the Cairngorms) is changing - the trees are barren and warped, even in the summer. It is a haunted place.
They decide that they need to deal with whatever's going on in the Cairngorms. I tell them that, hundreds of years ago, when Nerath was strong, nobles used to bury their dead in grand tombs in the Cairngorms. They're sealed with powerful magics; only those who are direct descendants of those in the tomb can enter, and even then only to mourn the dead (ie. no tombrobbing).
Malchior makes a good History check to see if he knows anything about these tombs, and I decide that his family has a tomb in The Valley of the Dead. They make their way towards it, entering the Cairngorms through the Dead Man's Pass.
As they are travelling, I roll for a random encounter. They come across a Deathpriest of Orcus, three Acolytes, and a pair of wights. The Deathpriest has sacrificed some goblins and kobolds and is performing a ritual to break into a tomb.
After a short (but reasonably tough) fight, the PCs win. They get no information from the Deathpriest or the Acolytes, and since it's nearly night they decide to make camp.
No random encounters occur during the night, so in the day they start searching for the location of the cult. A couple of castings of Hand of Fate leads them right to it - a really big tomb built long ago.
There are a couple of flunkies standing guard outside but it looks like they aren't paying too much attention; the cult is not on alert. They are easily dealt with and the PCs enter the tomb.
I don't have anything drawn up so I make a couple of random dungeon generation rolls and we have another encounter. A group of human bandits (cultists, all) are torturing a kobold to death under the guidance of an Oni Night Haunter. The PCs gain surprise and start kicking ass; the Oni tries desperately to escape, but even in a gaseous state, he cannot.
That's where we called it. I have to draw up the dungeon for next time - there are a lot of bad guys in there, nearly a hundred cultists (mostly rabble and human bandits) led by a Battlewight Commander, a Human Lich, and a Death Knight.
The PCs might be in trouble since they won't have the luxury of deciding when to take an extended rest, and have stirred up a hornet's nest! Luckily they haven't yet been spotted (after each short rest I'll roll 1d6 twice - one to see if there's a random encounter for the PCs, another to determine if their handiwork has been uncovered).
Oh yeah - while the PCs are out in the Cairngorms, Endinomar has sprung Kaldor from prison.
