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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4867644" data-attributes="member: 386">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.</blockquote>

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