The Adventures of the Endhome 6+1. Rebirth of Barakus! (9-27-06, 19 and 20 back up)

[Scorch]

Hello all,

After the "Great Board Borking of 2006", as I referred to the loss of data on ENWorld a few months back, all the postings I made about our gaming groups adventures in "The Lost City of Barakus" were lost.

Going through some old files at work, I came across the original documents I had saved my postings to. I decided to finally get off my duff and finish out the 32 part saga that was "The Lost City of Barakus".

I had a lot of fun running this campaign. The group I gamed with, which most of you know from the Savage Sword of Meepo Story Hour and the currently running Zad/WizarDru Shackled City Story Hour, were great fun to DM. They always surprised me and kept me on my toes.

Without further ado here is the glorious re-posting of the adventures of the Endhome 6+1:

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I want to try a Barakus Story Hour that is more of a journal of me as a DM and how I learned to Game Master again after a long hiatus. I decided to post this here rather than on ENWorld since my players frequent that other board. Here I will chronicle my struggles with this module and becoming a DM again.

Our gaming group has several campaigns running with some one shot adventures occasionally being played. I decided to try my hand at DMing again. My last attempt was a home-brewed campaign run in GURPS Fantasy that only lasted six sessions.

After observing how our different players and DMs ran and played different games I decided to compare it to what I was shooting for in a campaign. I wanted something where I did not have to put much thought into the world and the adventure and I could concentrate on learning the rules from a DMs perspective. Mainly I just wanted to have fun. A mega-module in the same vein of “Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil” was what I was looking for.

I saw Barakus sitting on the shelf of a FLGS and after some debate I picked it up and read through it. I then announced to the Meepites, our gaming group, that I wanted to try to DM casually again between the sessions of our main campaign. They all were eager, especially WizarDru, our main DM who was desperate to actually play in the game rather than always being the DM.

I picked up some bookmark stickies and poured through the Core books and bookmarked the heck out them. I did the same with the Barakus book. After re-familiarizing myself with the rules from a DM’s point of view, I then told everyone to put together a well-balanced party, 28 point attribute buy, core rules only.

They came up with the following:

Absinthe: Elf rogue, female. Very good search, sneak, and spot skills. Fences with a rapier. I like to call her the asthmatic elf because she has such a low fortitude. This leads to some hilarious role-playing on the player’s part. “I ain’t going in there! That’s dangerous!”. Played by Zad (on the EN boards).

Adson: Human monk, male. Quick with the Shuriken and the Sai. Played by Tantra. I allowed him to re-create his character after a few sessions when some mis-readings of the rules lead us to believe he could use a bow a certain way. Amusingly Tantra brought up a complaint that he could not find any good monk miniatures that were not bald. He eventually found a good one with hair from Reaver Minis.

Aislenn the Wraithborn: Human fighter, female. The tank! She wields a bastard sword two-handed style. Right now the player is going the generic fighter feat progression path (power attack, cleave, etc. etc.). Nothing wrong with that but my poor monsters should learn to turn and run when she comes onto the battle field. Played by Valanthe.

Keldin: Halfling ranger, male. The ranger who is the goblin-hater! Going with the ranged bow progression. With a lot of the beginning game happening in the wilderness it is always good to have someone who can track. Played by Dravot.

Micca: Dwarf cleric, male. This character has sort of become the heart and soul of the party. The player does a great job of being a noble cleric of Hieronius and is easy to sink the adventure hook into. Played by Argent.

Ravenspur: Gnome sorcerer, male. Is the picture of health compared to the rogue. Right now the player is going with heavy enchantment spells like sleep and such. Gets a lot of mileage out of that along with Ray of Frost and Harm Undead. Also, the party’s “charisma monkey”. Played by WizarDru.

Next posting: How the heck do I get them into the game?!?!

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 1: OK I got them to roll up characters. Now what?

The night had arrived for my first game as a DM in so many years. After gaming with the others for so long I had a good idea of what tools I would need. I had my three core rulebooks all bookmarked up as well as the Barakus adventure book. For mapping we were using one of those large presentation tablets you can pick up at an office supply store. It had a one-inch grid on it. We had plenty of painted and plastic miniatures.

Days before the game I had written up a two-page summary document of what I wanted to happen. The players were hired guards for widow merchant’s caravan heading through Fool’s Pass. She had made the run before and knew it was a tough go but it shaved weeks off of the normal, safer, route.

Each of the players had their reasons for going to Endhome but I decided I needed to plant a seed for a possible adventure hook. I told Micca, the cleric, that he was being sent to find out what happened to a fellow priest of Hieronius who ran the local temple chapter in Endhome. He had been missing for a year. The missing priest was the NPC from level 3 of Barakus. Later on I would build on this adventure hook to incorporate in some of the other NPCs who are wandering around Barakus, driven mad by the artifact down there.

I also included an NPC fighter as the captain of the caravan guard in case the adventurers got in over their head with some of the freakier encounter table entries for the wilderness. I decided I would start this first adventure by letting the dice fall as they may and see what happens.

Sure enough the first encounter in the hills surrounding Fool’s Pass was with four grimlocks. I decided to interpret these encounters in a way that made sense. The four grimlocks were hiding behind rocks on the slopes on either side of the pass and were waiting an opportune moment to ambush the caravan. Scouting by Absinthe, the rogue, alerted the party to what was happening and a bad hide roll by a grimlock initiated combat.

This was my first combat so I had my laptop open next to me with an Excel spreadsheet listing names of combatants, initiative, AC, and hit points. I had purchased DMGenie but, frankly, it was a little intimidating to me at the moment. Everyone rolled init, I rolled for the monsters, and I sorted the fields.

A little history first: Flashback four years ago when we first had the 3.0 PHB and the Sunless Citadel module. None of us had played DnD in years. Our first combat was with a twig blight and we felt pretty good how the six of us schooled it’s a$$. We had reached the entrance to the Citadel and the paladin, played by Tantra, climbed down a rope to the first room. Where he was promptly taken to pieces by a single dire rat. Since then none of us has really played a first level party in a while and I was well aware how a missed roll could KILL a player at this level. This was running through my head as the players charged into combat.

The grimlocks fought in two teams of two. Spells and arrows flew while swords and battle-axes clashed. Things were getting hairy for a moment there as hit points on PCs were whittled down and I thought I may need to bring the NPC fighter in to help things out but then some point was reached when it all came apart for the monsters and they were finished off in one round’s time.

Years of playing with the new rules had honed our tactical combat skills on the grid map so the combat had gone off without a hitch. Another aspect of low-level gaming came up at that point: the players are POOR! They stripped the grimlocks down of everything they had. Loot was loot.

The party passed the first noted area on the map. Unfortunately this was my first problem I came across with the module. The I and the J on the map look too much alike so what should have been the entrance to Barakus was turned into the Caves of the Dead. When I later found this out I decided to keep it the way I read it. I had the cleric get a feeling of great evil over towards a certain area, secretly hoping they would investigate knowing full well the undead there would probably wipe them out. Instead the party made a note of it and moved on.

I knew it would take them four to five days to get to Barakus from where they were at so this was a good test run for me to just through stuff at them and see how they reacted.

The next encounter was at night when they camped near the wizard’s tower. Ravenspur and Micca were drawn to it while camp was being set up. I let them figuratively bang their heads against it until they gave up. That night I rolled on the encounter tables and came up with two gnolls. I played it as a father and son coming up to the tower for an adult initiation ritual. Only Keldin, the ranger, spoke gnoll and he was privy to my bad Red Green imitation as I had the father drone on and on about how generations of gnolls had come to the big stone spike to pee on it as a part of their initiation into adulthood. The caravan was camped off a ways so neither they nor the gnolls were aware of each other. The ranger just happened to spot them. Since they were not goblins and obviously not up to any mischief he let them be while observing them hidden.

The next encounter was the rogue scouting ahead and coming across six goblins lounging about a stream that crossed the road, skinning a deer they had brought down. She decided to settle in a watch their reaction to the approaching caravan. Now when I roll encounters I want to role-play it out. These monsters did not just appear out of the ether and charge into combat. There is a reason why they are here doing what they are doing. I decided to think how a band of hunters from a goblin tribe would treat an approaching, well armed, caravan. They heard it from a distance off and skedaddled.

The ranger was disappointed when he heard he had missed a chance to fight goblins. He and the rogue went scouting together and I rolled up the two half-orc brothers. Both parties were suspicious of one another and after some cautious conversation parted ways. The module stated their attitude if treated a certain way and I decided to role play it that way.

That night I rolled the worse possible roll for the location they were in: double zeroes… the red dragon. I played it like the book recommended I do: as an opportunity to frighten the pants off of the party. Being experienced players who knew what they saw flying in the distance, outlined by the light of the full moon, they got the caravan off of the road into the woods as quickly as they could. The dragon dived into the hills to the north, they saw the brief flash of red flame, and then it rose up again with half of something large clutched in its claws. It flew off into the distance and they decided to camp in the woods for the rest of the night.

The rest of the journey to Endhome was pretty uneventful with the exception of an encounter with a monstrous bee that the sorcerer led off with dancing lights. They also encountered the rider-less horse, which they kept.

Upon reaching the north gates of Endhome they were paid 50 GP each for their services and given a letter of introduction they could present to Bragger Bondhome, the captain of the city guard. More plot hooks for me to use. I ended the adventure there for the night.

Now came the fun part of experience. I calculated up all the CRs for what they fought and won against. I added it all together, divided it by 6 and then halved it. This was keeping with the adventure’s recommendation to slow level progression so that the party was not level 5 by the time they hit the actual dungeon. I wanted to run them through some city and wilderness adventures to get them to level 2 before they hit Barakus.

Next Up: What do I run them through now that will not KILL them…

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 2: Finding a good adventure…

Our second session was coming up and while re-reading the city adventures for Endhome I came to the belief that they might all be a little bit too hard for the players. Later I learned that I should stop worrying and just throw stuff at them but at as a DM getting back into the game after so many years I was worried about those dreaded three letters: TPK.

I felt that the adventures they recommend for starting players in the city were a little too tough. The slavers and the were-rats were inviting trouble. No way in heck they could tackle the vampires. There was Barakus but I wanted to build up to that and it would require some trekking through the wilderness. They had just gotten into the city and I thought the narrative flow would be odd if I had them turn around and head back out again.

Fortunately help came to me in the form of a fellow ENWorlder and contributor on this forum as well: Pogre. He had written up a nice 1st level campaign that he emailed to me. Those of you familiar with his posting of Barakus on ENWorld know this as the Micon adventure.

During the hiatus between the first and second adventure I had created some miniature sets using Hirst Art blocks. I used my surplus of parts and laid out the entire complex written up by Pogre in his adventure. After taking a few photos of it on a digital camera, so I could remember the layout, I packed it all up for the game later.

Feedback from the players was very positive. They had a ball playing as first level characters again. I guess it was the adrenaline rush from the possibility of being one failed roll away from oblivion. It was a nice change of piece from the main campaign we played under WizarDru where we were annihilating invading armies of githyanki from the Prime Material Plane. Boosted by their encouragement I wrote up another outline of how I wanted to get them into Micon’s hideout.

The game started up where we left off last time, outside the city gates. I knew the first thing they would all do: look for the nearest inn to set up base. One quick inquiry to the local constabulary pointed them towards the King’s Road Inn outside of the west gates of the city. To reach there they would need to travel through Endhome. This provided me with an opportunity to layer on the flavor text, describing Endhome and some of its history. I made sure to point out the Temple district and the Wizard’s Academy, two points of interest to two of the characters. Of course, all ears perked up when I mentioned the market. They were eager to spend some cash but first, the Inn!

They arrived at the Inn during the lunch rush. The place was packed and after the usual “Meet the Innkeeper” banter, they got some rooms and sat themselves down for a meal. It was amusing to watch them count their silver pieces when it came to rooms and meals. The stark contrast between epic level and low level game play was very interesting.

Never one not to throw more plot hooks at the players, I had the evil adventuring party led by Dagon Ziss make a dramatic exit from the inn, knocking over a serving maid. Micca, the cleric, became upset at this rude behavior and tried to make his way to them but the crowd was too much and they were gone by the time he got outside. The evil party was book level at that point and could have mopped the floor with the player characters. No, I had other plans for them…

The players then decided to engage in what I consider the biggest time sink in any game: shopping. Sure, it’s fun to role-play the bartering but after a point you just set a house rule on core book prices and what percentage they get for used equipment. It makes things go a lot faster. Also, it is a good excuse for the DM to hit the kitchen for snacks while they debated what kind of bow they want to buy.

As soon as the last gold piece was spent and the last arrow purchased I hit them with the opening story hook to Pogre’s adventure: a big sewer explosion.

The sewer grate from the explosion landed right at their feet. Like any curious adventurer they made a bee-line right for the origin of the explosion. They found some city guards had pushed the crowds back. No one was hurt by the explosion and the guard were now debating what to do. Upon seeing the adventurers they said they would provide some monetary reward if they went down and took a quick look see.

The rogue scouted down into the hole and discovered the source of the explosion was a magical firetrap going off by a door set in the sewer wall. Another rogue had set it off while trying to disarm it. The doorway led down a five foot wide corridor into the darkness. Absinthe made her way back to the top, after looting the corpse, and made her report.

I was worried when some debate arose among the players that they had done their duty and could go but more reckless heads prevailed (yay!) and they decide to investigate further.

Standard marching order was then discussed and implemented by the party. Rogue up front by 15 feet followed by the rest of the party. I made a note of who had a light source and who had low light or dark vision.

After marching down a 20’ corridor they came to the first room containing two zombies. The rogue sneaking into the room activated them and the fight was on. Three rounds of combat later the zombies were down and no one suffered any injuries.

The next room was investigated as well as the adjoining bedroom. There they discover Micon’s notes on his desires to become a lich. Ravenspur tucked those away for later.

Another room revealed four skeletons. The party charged into battle. The rogue, fearing bodily harm ran back two rooms when it looked like the skeletons were going to push past the front line bricks. Ravenspur started using Harm Undead to great effect at this point. His player gloated that he had yet to cast a first level spell so far in the game. A turning by the cleric sent two of the skeletons running away down a passageway carved into the earth.

The party started heading down the earthen passage. I believe Pogre stated that it goes off for two thousand feet before reaching the tomb that Micon is hiding in. I decided that Micon would be alerted to the players by the two skeletons and that he would take command of them to help him in his fight.

The problem was that after 700 feet into the passageway the players were deciding to turn back. I really, REALLY wanted them to fight Micon, a CR3 Ghast, so I shortened the distance of the passage so they eventually reached it before turning back. They reached the end and came to a ladder leading up to the tomb within which Micon awaited.

Absinthe climbed up the ladder to sneak a peak and nearly got her head taken off by a skeleton. She caught a glimpse of what was waiting the party and she boogied back on down to let them know before running back down the corridor (did I mention she has very low hit points). The rest of the party follow, hearing Micon and his minions chasing after them. They decide to set an ambush at a choke point back where the passageway opened up into the room.

Micon sent his skeletons through to try and push past the party but they cut them to pieces. The monk then tumbled past the ghast to get the flank and they start taking him down. They were very worried that if he connected with his paralyzing powers then things could get ugly but they finally cut him down with minimal damage done to the party.

They scour the entire complex for any treasure they missed then make their way back out to the market to report to the lone guard who was left behind to watch the hole. The guard wrote up a voucher for their reward. 5 whole gold pieces… YAY!

To wrap things up I decided to finish some business with what Micca’s player had inquired about which was the location of the Temple of Hieronius. The party traveled with him to the temple district and they found it without a problem. It was in disrepair and boarded up. An inquiry to a local guard revealed that it had been abandoned for over a year and the city had it sealed up six months ago. If Micca wanted to enter it he would need to inquire with the city government. On that note I ended the game for the night.

Experience was tallied up and reward. Unfortunately one player was not present for the game and neither was his character so: No experience for him! I decided to rule that if you were not there and there was a plausible reason for the character not to be there then they did no participate and no XP for them. If this happened in the middle of a dungeon crawl then I thought it would be silly to say that the character suddenly had to take a powder. The player would get XP since their character was there and contributed resources to the adventure. Of course this would mean they were run as a brain dead NPC by the DM and the other players would lose that much experience. No one seemed to mind this ruling.

Next Adventure: Why the hell not? Let’s throw some were-rats at them!

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 3: Mmmm… Were-rats!

We had a long hiatus between the second and third adventure. During that time I was experimenting with foam boards and Hirst Arts blocks to create cavern like set pieces. I decided to create a piece that used the sewer pieces from before and made a two-part cavern for the were-rat lair adventure.

I had a full turnout for the third game and I was happy since I felt no guilt about throwing were-rats at the party. I still stacked the deck in their favor as the adventure progressed.

After claiming their reward at the Barracks the party attempted to get a meeting with Bragger Bondhome using the letter of introduction they had received. Bragger was not in since he was out checking on another report of a highway robbery by the Green Tree Bandits (mmm… plot hook).

Micca finally got permission to claim the abandoned temple of Hieronius as his own. I used Father Beamus’s temple for the floor design just so I did not have to draw something up for him. The other members of the party helped him clean up the temple and that night I had the cleric experience a vision showing him the hill above Barakus. He dove down through the first and second level and came to the room where Kabbal Sharn, the missing cleric, was currently living.

This was my method of moving the story towards where the party wanted to get to Barakus. I decided to put together a lost adventuring party made up of Sharn, Fenton Barmey (the lost sorcerer), and several other of the mad NPCs deep within Barakus. Micca had already begun collecting news and gossip at how Sharn and Fenton had done research on the lost city and had put together a group to go out to the hills to explore for it.

The next day the party wanted to sell their loot and pick up some master work items they had ordered from the day before. At this point the party split up to do separate business. I love it when the party splits since then I can do some mischief. News of what had happened in the sewers had spread from the night before and several interested parties now wanted to meet with the group. The first was Dagon Ziss and the evil adventuring party. Dagon wanted Micon’s notes from his lab. He offered to buy them for 25 GP from Ravenspur. Since Micca was not with the group Ravenspur was with at the moment the sorcerer readily agreed (after one alignment check). The transaction took place without a hitch. I had written up what would happen if Ravenspur had said no and it could have been messy. Micca was not happy when he heard of the deal.

The other person interested in meeting the party was Curley Barnes, the gnome bard. As per his description in the module I had him leech onto the party without giving them much choice. I knew how they would react, with suspicion, since a similar situation in “Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil” had almost ended in a PC death (MINE!) when the bard turned out to be an assassin. Curley was as he was written in the module, just a bard who wanted to join up with adventurers who seem to be going places so he could get good material out of them. He was also my way of adding someone who could help the party out in a tight situation. That he was yet another XP anchor was a plus.

On to the adventure hook! After regrouping and having dinner, the party was heading back to the Inn as night settled in. A distraught child ran into them claiming his father was kidnapped. The child was too upset to give details and just kept wailing to be taken to Father Beamus. Micca knew of where the priest of Pelor was and ten minutes later they were knocking on the door of the sun god’s temple. Beamus let them in and listened to their story. He eventually calmed the child down and got the details from him. When he described big walking rats who shrugged off a dagger blow dealt by the father while the child got away the party start getting nervous. The players all knew the signs of were-rats and wondered where they could get silver weapons at this time of day. They were under the belief that the clock was running out for the father before the were-rats ate him or turned him into one of their own.

Father Beamus then told the players of an infestation of were-rats from 10 years back that nearly brought Endhome to its knees. The temples worked with the local law enforcement to clear out the sewers but now it looks like some had survived and were laying low. Fortunately Beamus’s temple kept a cache of weapons. He would lend them out to the party if they went into the sewers to rescue the boy’s father. Micca was ready to do it for free but the more mercenary members of the party needed some more incentive. Beamus said that he would offer his healing services for free if they helped the boy out. That was all they needed to hear.

I had provided the silver weapons since they would not have a fighting chance against the were-rats at their current first level. I was also setting up some resources they could draw upon later.

The now calmed down boy was able to give a description of the alley the were-rats had carried his father into. The party returned to the scene of the crime as a heavy rain began to set in. The ranger, Keldin, easily tracked the were-rats and the dragged body of the father to a nearby sewer grate. Now I could have figured out how hard the DC of tracking the were-rats were but I decided that Tousice, the leader, was getting a little careless with his body snatching and this time they did not bother to hide their tracks.

“Into the sewers again!” bemoaned Absinthe.

Marching order was established with the ranger and the rogue leading the way. One rolled encounter had the party coming up against a wandering beggar who had sought refuge from the heavy rain underground. He didn’t want any trouble but he did point the players in the right direction saying he had seen the were-rats in the past. With a silver piece for his troubles he headed in the opposite direction of the players.

I made note to the players that the heavy rains were beginning to fill up the canal between the walkways in the sewer tunnels and the current was swift.

The ranger and the rogue soon found the secret door leading into the were-rat lair. Here was where I had to start keeping track of the location of the were-rats versus the party due to their scent ability. Since the tunnel in the lair was not straight line I had to decide if the 30’ scent range worked by line of sight or by straight line. I decided line of sight.

Absinthe managed to disable the trap and alarm on the secret door and gained entrance to the lair. The party believed they had gained undetected entry to the lair but the light from the sorcerer’s lantern alerted the swarm of rats in the first cave area. They swarmed forward but a sleep spell from Ravenspur knocks them all out cold. The activity does not go unnoticed further into the cave as the first group of were-rats come to investigate.

As soon as the first adventurer entered the cave, the scent ability of the were-rats detected them and the first fight is on. The frontline bricks in the party formed a wall to block off the were-rats and blows are exchanged. Another sleep spell goes off from Ravenspur and the majority of the creatures go down. The one left standing was quickly dispatched. Those left sleeping on the ground are disposed of as well. All this noise has alerted Tousice who is preparing his followers to charge out and engage the party.

The final group of were-rats led by Tousice were rogues so if they got behind the party with tumble checks then they could get some nasty sneak attacks in. TPK still loomed in my head and this was both a test for myself as well as them. Tousice and the others formed up as the party came within sight of them in the main cave. Init was rolled with no surprise round since both parties knew what was coming.

Tousice rolled the best init and led off with a thunderstone attack against Adson who happened to be closest. The monk failed his save and was deafened. The other were-rats moved in and started stabbing away at the front line fighters of the party.

Two rounds in and neither group made much headway with missed rolls or very low damage. The were-rats were beginning to get the upper hand and the party retreated back down the corridor. A sleep spell set off by Ravenspur failed miserably while Absinthe, fearing that she would get killed in one hit retreated out of the cave complex entirely. Keldin could not use his bow to good affect in such tight quarters. On the plus side, the were-rats could not tumble through with the way the corridor was configured.

Things did not look good and talk was made of retreating but then the tide turned on a single spell. Ravenspur set off another sleep spell and this time two of the were-rats went down. They were quickly dispatched before the others could react and attempt to wake them. The group then rallied and it became a slaughter.

Tousice watched as his minions were cut to pieces. Fortunately for him all the were-rats going down cleared room enough for him to tumble through and escape. He dodged and weaved between players but he still got cut and nicked from AOOs. He was low on hit points when he finally burst out into the sewer tunnels startling Absinthe.

The adventurers did not want to let him go and what followed next was a chase down the sewer tunnels with balance checks being made on the slippery ledges bordering the rapidly rising water. Tousice made it to a ladder leading out but was delayed a round while he failed his initial strength check to move the grate open. Aislenn got below him and climbed up high enough to take a swipe at him knocking the were-rat down to one hit point. The leader of the kidnappers missed his balance and fell off the ladder hitting Aislenn and they both tumbled into the flowing water. Tousice made his swim check but not Aislenn. I gave the players who caught up to the ladder a decision: go after Tousice who had disappeared underneath the water or rescue the rapidly sinking Aislenn in her heavy armor. They went with rescuing their comrade while casting furtive glances up and down the sewer tunnels.

The were-rat lair was ransacked and they found the missing father, beaten into unconsciousness but with no signs of bites or scratches which would indicate they wanted to turn him into a fellow were-rat. One interesting thing they found was a letter from Tousice’s client who had hired him to kidnap fresh victims. It was signed TP. This is, of course, a story hook for another adventure involving the vampires at the Pulanti estate.

The party then high-tailed it back to Father Beamus’s temple, convinced that Tousice was going to show up with a war band of were-rats, ready to slaughter them all. I found it amusing they were so paranoid when in reality poor Tousice was currently fighting for survival with only one hit point left to him. He had survived his ordeal and was very slowly making his way back to the Pulanti estate where he would report to the vampires of his failure. The party had just gained an enemy who I would use later.

The party was healed up by Father Beamus and thanked for their efforts. He had no idea who the letter was from but recommended they report what had occurred to the city garrison first thing next morning. He offered them to stay the night at his temple but the group, still paranoid that they were about to be attacked again, did not want to involve him in the fight and they barricaded themselves into Micca’s temple for the night.

At this point I was coming down with a cold and my throat was killing me. We called it a night and I doled out XP. Everyone said they had a great time and that the fight had their adrenaline pumping. I knew then that I should stop worrying about killing them since they were all very experienced players and knew how to evaluate threats and deal with them accordingly.

Next adventure: Back into the wilderness!

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 4: Almost killed by a vine.

The next adventure had me confident that I would not kill my players. Barakus was written with a well-balanced party of four players in mind and I had six players plus an NPC smashing their way through it. With the success of the were-rat lair behind I decided it was time to try out some of the wilderness encounters. But to get them out into the wilderness surrounding Endhome I needed to reel in one of the story hooks I had placed beforehand.

The night passed uneventfully with no attacks from vengeful were-rats. The players felt more confident now that they were healed back up. The first order of business was to report the were-rats to the town watch. Bragger Bondhome was back in town after being out in the field and he met the players. Their previous work in Micon’s Hideout plus the letter of introduction from their former employer were major pluses on his reaction to them. He listened politely to what they had to say and thanked them saying that he would take care of checking out the sewers despite all the other problems the city was having. At which point the players asked if he was referring to the Green Tree Bandits they had heard about.

When reading about Bragger I got that he was a pretty “no nonsense” kind of guy who maintained his position for so long as the Captain of the Watch in Endhome because he did the job well and did not let the internal politics of the city distract him from keeping the populace safe. As an 8th level fighter he was also one of the most powerful NPCs in the city. Bragger knew an opportunity to use the players as a resource so he told them about the recent spate of attacks on merchant caravans coming down the north-south route to Endhome. He had just come back from investigating the most recent attack. He then mentioned the 500 gold piece reward plus the possibility of additional rewards from merchants if their merchandise was recovered.

All the players needed to hear was “500 gold pieces” (a king’s ransom at that level) and they were ready to go running out the door. More level heads got additional information from the Captain including a location on the map of all the bandit attacks. At this point I would like to say how useful the PDF file containing the maps was. I printed up a keyless map of the wilderness when one of the players purchased one from a city vendor and we pinned it up to the corkboard in the game room where we played. On it I penciled in notes and locations that the players knew about.

Before setting out for the wilderness, the players made a stop at the big weapons shop in town (which just so happened to be outside the barracks) to place some advanced orders for masterwork and silver weapons. Aislenn spent a few minutes with her nose pressed up against the display case, admiring the magic weaponry within.

“One day” she whispered “One day…”

They also sold off the loot from the were-rat lair. Micca spent his share on hiring workers to fix the temple and get some new locks put on the doors. Father Beamus promised to keep an eye on it while they were out in the wilderness.

The next morning they were ready to head out. Curley Barnes, having proven himself in battle against the were-rats, was hired on by the party. The players paid him with a masterwork flute they had found earlier.

Now here is where I decided to compress travel time. The players had already traveled down this road before. I wanted things to move quicker and I thought it prudent not to bog them down with mundane travel. I just rolled for encounters five or six times a day in rapid succession and three times during the night. There were only two encounters of note. The first was with giant bees (They were not falling for that dancing lights trick again!). The other encounter was one of the goofier ones. During the night the players split into three watches. During one watch I rolled “The Hanged Man” encounter. We decided that it was silly that the person on watch would turn around and notice a dead body hanging from a tree they had not seen before so I just rolled again.

After three days of travel they reached where the most recent bandit attack had taken place. I started reading up on how the ranger could track. I took into account all the factors in the environment, time that had passed, etc. and came up with a number. The player running Keldin promptly took 20 and picked up the trail left by the bandit hauling the merchant wagons they had stolen into the Penprie Forest.

Here is where I had to make some decisions about “Taking 20”. How it was written in the PHB led me to believe that if a player had 2 minutes to spare on a task then they could Take 20 on a task. I sort of felt that it was like Aragorn in “The Two Towers” sniffing out what had happened at the scene of a battle, though he was probably hitting a DC 80 as opposed to the DC 25 to 27 I was hitting my ranger with. For Keldin tracking this was not much of an issue but later on Absinthe started taking 20 for everything she was doing.

In any event, Keldin had picked up the trail of the bandits and the party set off into the woods. By coincidence the line they were taking would lead them through several encounter locations in the forest. I still rolled for encounters with the appropriate modifiers since the forest is a pretty dangerous place for a low level party.

Their first encounter was with the flying monkeys. They ignored the advance guard of the ranger and the rogue and went right for the central pack of the party, raining darts from above. They then moved in to get the flank attacks on players, using their flying to get around the battlefield quickly. The party did pretty well against them slaying four of them in the first round and then picking off the others. One or two of the creatures fled the battlefield but were picked off by the ranger. A search of the area revealed some gold carved into the form of acorns.

The other encounter of note was when they camped at night in the woods and were attacked by two big spiders. The two players who were on watch quickly dispatched them before the others even had a chance to awaken fully and grab their weapons.

The next day the party came across the river that runs through the forest. The bandits had entered the river and then traveled down along its shallow bed to the south to throw off the trail of anyone tracking them. The DC of tracking them adjusted appropriately and the ranger could not make it even if he took 20. They would need to guess north or south. The party guessed north and started up the west bank of the river.

After a few hours the Absinthe noticed an unusual looking hill set back in the woods from the riverbank. The party stopped to investigate and made out the broken doorway leading into the hill. This was the Mysterious Crypt encounter. I made mention of the thick vines hanging down over the door. Absinthe’s player started scouting ahead and then made the flip remark “Yeah, watch these suckers animate and attack me or something.”

Poor, poor rogue.

WHAM! The assassin vine got the surprise round in and KOed Absinthe in one shot. She fell into negative HP and dropped like a sack.

Everyone stared at me slack jawed and I just shrugged saying “Well, you did walk right into it.” In my defense, the ranger missed his spot and wilderness rolls.

Init was rolled, the action music started, and it was ON! The assassin vine went first and for it’s action it dragged the rogue over to its root structure where it would feed from her decomposing body… that is if she was dead. I decided that since the vine is a mindless plant it could not tell if what it had attacked was dead or not and if you stopped moving then it grappled and moved you to where it could feed on you.

The party worked as best they could in the situation. Aislenn moved in and just started power attacking but she was not rolling that well on the damage. Keldin and Ravenspur stood back and peppered the vine with arrows and rays of frost. Micca and Adson attempted to move in as well to see if they could free Absinthe and heal her. It was pretty tight for three rounds as bad rolls on the party’s part and good rolls on the vines part had the party almost at the point of death. A final blow from the fighter finished it off and the party grabbed Absinthe and ran back to the riverbank.

At that point I called it a night. I had many dark looks thrown my way as I calculated up experience. Fortunately those went away when they realized they had all hit second level, even the ranger who had missed a session. I ruled that if they got a good night’s rest then they could level up.

They did so and everyone was happy that they had survived to second level. They would need it for what would come next…

Next up: Into the crypt then bandit bashing time!

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 5 Summary

At this point I knew exactly how things were going to go with this session. Everyone was feeling more confident having reached 2nd level and I knew the encounters coming up would be easy to run. The player running Absinthe was not available for that night so the “paper rogue” would be run as an NPC by me.

The party had just finished a deadly encounter with the Assassin Vine at the entrance to Area E: The Mysterious Crypt. Having rested the night they decided to tackle the structure before them. Now this group of people know the drill when it comes to dungeon crawling. They pretty much scoured the entire crypt entrance room from ceiling to floor, taking great pains in taking 20. Ravenspur found the four symbols and was able to interpret their meaning.

They then descended down the hole into the narrow tunnel. Keldin and Absinthe spotted the goblin bodies at the intersection. I had created the entire crypt using Hirst Art block pieces I had made for generic square rooms as well as a custom built piece for the rat tunnel intersection. While the ranger and the rogue were trying to be sneaky the cleric tumbled down the hole in his armor and made quite a racket. I then pulled out a pile of plastic dire rat minis and placed them on the board. Thank you, WotC plastic minis!

I played the rats as a swarming mass of rodent furry that would do move-throughs in an attempt to get the flank. The party was split by the tunnel intersection with Absinthe and the Ranger backed up against the strange door and the rest of the party constrained by the narrow tunnel. The fight lasted three to four rounds but the outcome was not in doubt. I knew they would carve the rats up. The only question was: who would succumb to filth fever. Answer: the fighter, Aislenn, and the rogue, Absinthe (big surprise there). The incubation period was a few days off but I made note of it for later.

After searching the goblin bodies and investigating both ends of the rat dug tunnel the party turned its attention to the Strange Door. Ravenspur’s player played twenty questions with me and eventually figured out how to open the door without killing himself. They happily made use of the Underground Garden’s resources and healed up.

Remembering that they were in the forest to look for the Green Tree Bandits the party then continued heading north along the river outside the crypt and eventually exited the forest to the north. Recognizing the Fool’s Pass they realized they had been going in the wrong direction. Back south they went and eventually picked up the bandits’ trail leading back to their hideout.

Before the game I had drawn the layout of the entire bandit camp on a 1” grid tablet page. I ran the encounter almost exactly as it was described in the book. The bandits had lookouts watching but the sharp eyes of the ranger and the rogue saw them and took them out with some well-placed arrows. As the party approached the camp luck failed them and some low hide/move-silent rolls were overcome by high spot/listen checks by the bandits. An alarm was raised and the fight was on.

Grump, the dwarf fighter, quickly organized the bandits while Garland, the bard, threw down a sleep spell that took down Adson, the party’s monk. Absinthe snuck around a pile of stolen merchandise to go for the flank while Aislenn went charging in, hoping to get some cleaves going. Ravenspur started throwing down his own sleep spells having some good success but could not get quite as many bandits into the area of affect as he had liked. Someone woke up the monk who spent a turn getting back up.

Then Fell Tarmick exited his tent. “All right” I thought, “This guy is going to give them a challenge.” Then Aislenn got to move and she critted him knocking him right into unconsciousness.

It turned out the real challenge for Grump and Garland. Grump, with the help of some bandits knocked Absinthe down below 0 hp and I wondered if I was going to have to tell Absinthe’s player that I had gotten his rogue killed while he was not present at the game. Grump also managed to almost kill Aislenn as well but then the ranger finally got into position and started hitting the good rolls with his bowshots and bandits started dropping. Micca and Adson were able to drop Garland and Grump and the combat finally ended with two of the surviving bandits surrendering while a third ran off into the woods (where he got eaten by a troll a few hours later).

Combat had ended in the manner that was satisfactory to the both myself and the players: with a few of the players still standing, exhausted, and a paper grid mapped heavily marked up with dead bodies and pools of blood drawn with Sharpie markers.

The wounded players were healed up. While the cleric was distracted by healing the others, he did not notice the other players finishing off some of the unconscious bandits. Grump and Fell Tarmick survived this since it was determined they would be better off brought in alive. Garland had dropped below –10 and succumbed to his wounds. The camp was raided and the party loaded up the stolen carts with boxes and crates of stolen goods and hitched up the draft animals that bandits had taken from the merchants.

The next morning they set off to try and get out of the forest and back to Endhome. Fell Tarmick attempted to sweet talk his way out of the situation he was in but they were hearing none of it and he was promptly smacked around and tied up. Later on I got to read up on Use Rope as he attempted to wiggle his way out of his bonds (no such luck).

A failed roll on Keldin’s part got them all good and lost in the forest. They managed to stumble upon another Assassin Vine which the ranger spotted and steered them around. They also came across the Black Unicorn encounter area but did not hang around long enough to encounter it. Finally they were found by Silvar and Thuss, the Araneas, who showed them how to get out of the forest.

The party stayed outside the Roadside Inn, keeping guard on their prisoners, and then continued on to Endhome the next day. Word had reached the city from travelers who had left earlier from the inn and people lined up to gawk at Fell and the remnants of his band of highway men. The players were rewarded the promised amount by Bragger Bondhome plus a bonus from the merchants whom had their merchandise returned.

The players then asked what had happened while they were gone. They were all still nervous that an army of were-rats was going to track them down and kill them all. In actuality I had decided that Tousice, having been reprimanded by his vampiric employers, was now plotting his revenge using resources from the Pulanti estate.

Bragger did mention an incident in the sewers involving a wizard name Bezlur Orloff attempting to tunnel into the Wizards Academy put it was foiled by Dagon Ziss and his party. I had come to the conclusion that the party would not be able to do all the side adventures listed in the book so why not have the evil adventuring party do them so they could level up and be a threat to the party later. They would be doing the adventures for more sinister reasons though.

With that I ended the session and the group began to think about what they wanted to buy with their reward money next session.

Next up: Barakus… no, really, they get there!

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 6 Summary

One would expect that while playing a mega-module named “Lost City of Barakus” the adventurers would eventually reach said city. I had been reluctant to let them dive right into it since at first level they would be slaughtered. Instead their first level was spent familiarizing them with the city of Endhome and the surrounding countryside. This gave them a chance to get my feet wet as a DM and reacquaint them with first level game play.

After finishing the Green Tree Bandit story I knew it was time for them to go to Barakus. I had laid the groundwork with several hints and story hooks through the previous six adventures and want to see them come to fruition. Unfortunately the player who runs Micca was not able to make the adventure but no problem. I knew I could run him as an NPC and move the adventure towards where I wanted it to go.

Balancing the game between moving the players towards a goal and railroading them into it is a skill I have come to appreciate while watching the DM of one of our other games run an adventure. I had read enough horror stories on other forums to know that I did not want to run an adventure where the DM’s pet NPCs do all the heavy lifting. With Barakus I had a self-contained world that the others could mess around in and I only had to nudge them occasionally towards adventure. They were eager to get into trouble and I was eager to give it to them.

With that in mind the story for this session opened up with the party visiting the marketplace to sell their loot and purchase equipment. I found that some hand-waving was necessary at this point with some house rules on selling items rather than role playing every haggling merchant. During this I had them all make listen checks. Those who succeeded heard Micca talking to a distraught woman a few stalls down in the market. He was agreeing to help her with something. The player who ran Micca had done a fine job of playing the dwarfish cleric as a noble defender of the weak so it was not a stretch to have him readily agree to the woman’s request. The players around the table rolled their eyes and made jokes of the cleric getting them in trouble again.

The woman was Penelope Barmey and she had heard of the exploits of the “Endhome Six” as they were becoming known thanks to the bard, Curley. Those familiar with her character description know that she was the wife to the sorcerer Fenton who was trapped down on the second level of Barakus. Psychic visions of his plight had been haunting her the past year but the previous night she had a vision that the cleric, Micca, and his companions would be able to help her.

The party took her back to the King’s Inn for a midday meal and she told her story. Her husband had discovered some ancient manuscripts while researching in the Wizard’s Academy detailing a lost city of mages hidden in the hills to the north. Fenton was friends with the cleric, Kabbal Sharn, who suggested they put together a party of adventurers to investigate. They met a paladin named Vladoff and two half brother halflings, one a rogue and one a monk. They poured over ancient maps and notes and one year ago had set off for the hills north of the Fool’s Pass. The group had not been heard from since. Fenton had taken all his notes with him but had left a map which showed a general area where the entrance to Barakus could be found.

The players were ecstatic. A dungeon to delve into! What joy! They investigated the lead of Vladoff and found that he had been staying at the local temple of Kord before setting off for Barakus but that was all. They began pouring through the manuals and making shopping lists of equipment they would need for such an adventure. I made sure to keep track of who was where since one of their enemies was keeping track of them.

Then an opening: Ravenspur, the sorcerer, was eager to purchase some scrolls and potions that could not be found in the marketplace so he journeyed alone to the Wizards Academy. It was evening by the time his business was concluded and he made his way back to the inn. A good spot check on his part had him notice he was being followed by a suspicious man and a hulking humanoid hidden in a heavy cloak. A quick chase through the streets and a very good hide check on his part had Ravenspur duck out of site in the crowded streets behind a cart. There he was able to overhear Tousice, the were-rat in human form, and one of Pulanti’s ogres arguing over which way to go. The sorcerer waited until they had departed and then shakily made his way back to report what had happened. The party decided that a trip outside of the city was a good thing at this time.

The party headed out the next morning with their single horse. It was a three day journey to reach the general vicinity of Barakus. Due to the mixing up of the I and J on the map in the module I had place Barakus in the upper right hand corner of the map rather than the upper left hand corner. This worked out since it shortened the time it would take to reach there and I wanted the party to have easy access back to the city in case things went sour. I rolled encounters for the three days and nothing of note came up.

Successful wilderness rolls on Keldin’s part led them right up to southern face of the hill that Barakus laid under. They saw the old totems of the former orc tribe that had inhabited the caves and followed them to the broken doors leading up into the hill. They looked for an area to hide the horse and worked out a marching order. Absinthe, the rogue, would lead while the others followed fifteen feet behind.

She made her way slowly up the rubble strewn stairs. Around the midway point was when the two dire rats leapt out and attacked. Aislenn went charging up the stair to help, missed her balance check, and went tumbling back down again. Same with the cleric. Absinthe was able to ward off the rats until help slowly made its way up to her and defeated the rodents. A quick search revealed some treasure on the goblin body the rats had been gnawing on. “The goblin died eaten by rats?” asked the ranger “Good!”

They reached the top of the stairs and saw the large cavern stretch out before them with a strange red tile set in the floor that led off into a passageway to the north and east. The rogue then spotted the ghoul that charged out of its hiding spot at her. The others moved in and attacked, quickly defeating the undead threat. Investigation of the cavern revealed the ledges set high up and some of the more dexterous members climbed up to find the treasure hidden there.

A decision was made to head north. Absinthe led the way into another cavern that was dominated by a statue of Orcus looking down upon those entering the area.

“Well, we know where the orcs worshipped” quipped someone.

The orc barbarian and his two war dogs did not see the rogue but they heard the loud party coming up from behind and he moved in to attack. Absinthe saw them coming and warned the others then started positioning herself for the flank. Ravenspur rolled high on init and let loose with a sleep spell that dropped the orc and one of his dogs (a rules mistake on my part that would be pointed out at a later session). The second dog was killed and the poor orc and his remaining hound were put to the sword.

The group decided to continue going north. They entered another cave and the rogue descended down a cliff to investigate the bottom, discovering a secret door on the north wall. The rest of the party descended carefully on ropes.

Following the narrow passage behind the secret door the group came to a cavern with passageways leading out to the north and east. Absinthe accidentally set off a spike trap but narrowly avoided it. She found another one further in the cavern. Finding nothing else of note they decided to go north.

Just to give you an idea of where the party was, they were at the T section with a hole in the ceiling that lead up to a cave where some bandits were hiding. They made note of the hole but did not investigate it further. Instead they went west and came to a dead end cave with a large pile of sand on its southern wall. Spot checks were made and they noticed the slight rippling across its surface.

“Go ahead and throw a rock at it!” dared Absinthe “I bet you spiders or something are going to erupt out of it.”

Someone took her up on that dare and threw a rock onto the sand pile which promptly erupted as eight monstrous spiders attacked the party. Everyone gave the rogue a mean look as I yelled out “Surprise Round!”

The spiders swarmed over the party but the rolls were not with me that combat session as the party quickly squashed them. The combat was noisy though and someone had heard what was going on…

I decided to end the session there.

“So we are really in Barakus?” asked a player.

I saw no reason to hide the fact “Yes, you are.”

“No, really? This is Barakus? Not a trick or something.”

“Yes, really!”

“Wow, that was easy.”

I took that as a complement. I didn’t want them banging their heads in frustration trying to find the place. Now that they had arrived I hoped to make their stay there as exciting as possible.

Next Session: Annihilating Kobolds…

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 7 Summary

Barakus is a campaign that our group plays between sessions of our main campaign run by WizarDru, who plays Ravenspur. Typically it is when not all the players can make the main game or if WizarDru is too burned out or did not have time to put together an adventure. I always have the books ready to play at a moment’s notice, which is why I picked Barakus. We can just pick up and go from where we left off.

I had such grandiose plans for using miniatures, Hirst Arts, and Dwarven Forge pieces to layout the entire dungeon but after a point I came to realize that it would slow down the pace of the game. Laying out the pieces beforehand, transporting them over to the house we played at, and storing them there would be a chore. Instead I went to on old standby: the one-inch grid presentation tablet.

I picked up two from the local office supply store and I spent the night drawing out the entire first level of Barakus, the caverns, on the first twenty pages of the tablet. I then made some pieces of paper I could use to cover up the unexplored parts of the map and reveal them as the party moved on. I traced it all out with colored markers to add some flavor. I also re-read the entire first level adventure and made notes of the possible creatures they could run across. Going through all our miniature collections I laid aside all the figures they could run across.

This lead to one awkward exchange between me and Valanthe, who plays Absinthe:

“So you bought the basic D&D box set at Southern Exposure?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well I need to get something out of it.”

“It is over there. What do you need out of it.”

“Oh, nothing important.” I replied as I palmed the black dragon medium sized mini out of it.

Having this all prepared. I started the next session of Barakus.

The party had just finished off the monstrous spiders hiding underneath the sand pile in the northwest corner of the map. The sound of their combat had alerted the Pogin gang who were hiding in the cave above (I rolled their listen checks and got some high numbers). They shined a lantern down the hole in the floor at the back of their cavern so they could see what was happening. Spot checks by Adson and Ravenspur alerted the party to the source of light down the corridor from where they were. The party debated for a bit in silence and during this time the Pogin Gang decided to seal up the hole with some boards and place heavy boxes on top of them. They were taking no chances. The party decided to move on.

Standard marching order was set up and the group moved east down the corridor. Absinthe was able to hear and eventually see six kobolds practicing with crossbows up ahead. Unfortunately as she approached she did not spot the trip-wire, which dropped a net on top of her. She was promptly entangled. The rest of the group charged forward at the six kobolds who had time to fire off their first round of crossbow shots. Five of the six kobolds went down but the sixth near the back went charging off to the south to warn the rest of the tribe while his comrades died.

The group heard a warning horn blow and knew that they had just kicked over an anthill. I rolled a d4 and came up with 2, which was how long it would take the kobolds to get organized and attack. I made a note that two rounds into the next combat that the kobold rogue sorcerer would lead a strike force around and attack the party from the rear through the passageway leading from the east.

The group formed up with their bricks in the front while Ravenspur and Keldin moved to the east to provide fire support while keeping an eye on the eastern exit. Ravenspur’s player made sure I knew he was keeping an eye out.

The kobolds formed up ranks and all moved on the same init. The first wave was to use up AoOs as they charged forward to try and get the flank. Some made it, some died. The crossbow target range soon became a killing ground as kobolds swarmed into the room. The party were slaughtering kobolds but were slowly being overwhelmed by the numbers.

The kobold rogue then made his move and his hide and move silent rolls exceeded the spot and listen checks of Ravenspur. The sly kobold got his sneak attack in and I thought I was about to have my first character kill when I rolled double ones for damage.

“You are SO lucky!” I snarled at Ravenspur’s player.

The group knew a new threat when they saw it and two of them spent a round to turn around and annihilate the poor kobold before he could do more mischief. The strike team that followed did a little better and the party was now flanked. Keldin and Ravenspur backpedaled through the party to get clear of the kobolds and their stabbing blades.

The tide had turned after another round of combat as my dice failed me and the party started hitting their stride. Soon all the kobolds were dead. The tribe had been wiped out root and branch. The adventurers took a breather and heal up their wounds before taking a body count. They had fought over 20 kobolds and won. Careful exploration of the rest of the kobold complex revealed no survivors.

The party then decided to investigate the hole back near the spider cave. I did a quick ruling on what the DC was to climb up the hole without a rope secured at the top and the monk took 20 and made it up no problem. He started banging on the wooden covering the Pogins had placed over the hole and they came to investigate, weapons drawn. Based on their write up in the module I decided that they were pretty fearful of anything in the caves so after an initial scare they realized they were looking at a human and did not attack. Adson conversed with them for a few minutes, letting them know that the kobolds had been destroyed. The brothers and their half-orc compatriot were not looking for trouble and thanked the monk for the news. Adson dropped back down the hole and let the party know who was up there and that there was another exit from the caverns there as well.

The party then decided to range east and south from the kobold caves and came to the western edge of the giant cavern containing the lake. They decided to avoid it and start investigating some passages to the west to see if they linked up with what they discovered already.

The tunnel they chose lead to the stone pillar containing the Warrior’s Prayer. They made note of it and continued exploring eventually coming across the strange cave with the three stone rocks and the red circle on the floor. After poking and prodding they stumbled across how to activate the ritual to drain CON from three players by 2 and place 4 on the player in the circle. Unfortunately one of the players drained was Absinthe who dropped down to a CON of 6. I told the players that she was not looking so good, even worse than she normally looked. The asthmatic elf decided that she could not go on for the rest of the day and needed to rest. Adson, on the other hand, was the picture of health, just having gotten 4 more CON. The party decided to rest for the day in the cave.

They set watches and I rolled on the random encounter table, dropping encounters that made no sense considering where they were and also that they had wiped out most of what was in the western half of the caverns. They waked the next day with the effects of the CON drain/boost gone and ready for adventure.

While they had breakfast, Keldin started worrying about the horse they had left outside. He and Curley volunteered to sneak back the way they had come to check on the horse. The rest of the party stayed and got ready for the day. Since Keldin’s player was not attending this session and Curley was an NPC this was just my way of setting up another encounter.

Keldin returned and reported that an ogre was now in the entrance cave where they had fought the ghoul. This was the ogre from the east who was happy now that he could leave the caverns. The party came up with a cunning plan to take it out and free up the southern exit from the caves.

While Absinthe snuck into the cave and hid, the others would raise a ruckus and draw the ogre into the northern passageway. The bricks would be up front fighting while the rogue would come up from behind for the sneak attack. Absinthe was able to gain entry to the cave without drawing the ogre’s notice. The party started making noise and the monster went to investigate. It charged in with its club and smashed the monk knocking him down to low single digits. One more hit and he would probably die. Ravenspur then cast the Daze spell and the ogre failed the save. It would lose its next action.

We found out later that we had made a mistake here. We thought that the ogre was a humanoid and thus affected by the spell but it was a giant. None of us knew this until a few days after this session but the mistake probably saved a few lives. Live and learn.

With the ogre dazed the party moved in and hacked it to pieces in the space on one round. The monk was healed up and the ranger went and checked on the horse: it was okay.

Still feeling up for a fight the party then investigated the caves to the east of the entrance. They winded their way through several empty caverns and Absinthe’s keen ears picked up sounds from ahead. She snuck up to where the cave passageway widened and she saw two rodent humanoids on guard duty.

“WERERATS!” squeaked Absinthe’s player. We ended the session for the night on that note.

The session was probably the most fun the players had according to the feedback they gave. They loved the kobold encounter. Ravenspur’s player stated that it had a great low level encounter feel to it in that the dice could turn at any moment and members of the group could certainly die. I tried to play the kobolds intelligently with them setting up flanks and moving in formation and the result worked out very well.

Next Session: Where oh where are the were-rats?

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 8 Summary

We were going to play our normal adventure but unfortunately one of the players required for the plot, Micca’s player, called in sick so Ravenspur’s player, WizarDru, turns to me and says: “You wanna run Barakus?”

A quick 30 minute round trip back to my house and I had everything I needed. Since then I have always kept the Barakus materials in my car just in case. A good DM is always ready for a pick-up game.

We picked up right where we left off with Absinthe having just spotted the rat men. The party was not sure if they were were-rats or if indeed related to Tousice and his gang back in Endhome. Some of them had placed orders for silvered weapons back in Endhome but had not picked them up yet. The rat men had rolled suck and suck on Spot and Listen so Absinthe backed out of the cave and a plan was made.

The rogue would sneak in as best as she could and then the party would strike in as quickly as they could on the surprise round hoping some charge and sneak attacks could be made before an alarm was raised.

Absinthe was able to get in place, inits were rolled, and surprise round went into affect. The rat men were caught off guard and were quickly overwhelmed by the party. The group was relieved when their regular weapons were able to score damage. One of the guards survived long enough to blow on a silent whistle and thus alert the rest of the colony. The party knew what was coming so they finished up the guards and got in formation to proceed further into the caves.

They heard movement and up ahead as the colony mobilized for defense. Vexper and Contra had the rat men well organized and I played them so that the rogue, Vexper, would lead the main force while Contra would take a smaller force and defend from another direction while casting spells over the heads of her bodyguards. I had my strategy planned out while the party warily edged forward with Absinthe in the lead.

Oh, how the dice turn. Absinthe blew her spot and listen checks and snuck around the corner right into two rat men who made theirs. They KOed her and she went down. The other rat men rushed into position under Vexper’s commands. They spotted the adventurers rushing up to save their comrade. Since she would be in the way of deploying his troops, Vexper dragged the elf’s limp body behind the line of combat and out of sight of the party. They had no idea what they were going to do to her so the battle plan now evolved into a race to save her. I was not about to coup de grace her since the rat men were disciplined enough to concentrate on the more immediate threat of heavily armed foes in front of them. Absinthe was just tossed aside to be dealt with later out of the way of combat.

Aislenn, Adson, and Micca moved up to engage the main rat man force while the other stayed back to provide fire, song, and spell support. The line held and Vexper looked for an opening to tumble through so he could start hitting the flank of the invaders. Contra finally got into position and threw a sleep spell at the rear of the group. It did not take. Ravenspur returned one in kind and knocked out two of her bodyguards. The rat witch sent her familiar, Ben, to go wake them.

Curley and Keldin saw an opportunity and charged Contra and her guards and started hacking them to pieces. The main group of fighters were systematically butchering the main force of rat men and Vexper failed his tumble check and was dropped by a sword blow dealt by Aislenn. Contra soon fell as well as did Ben and the rest of her guards. Keldin, decided that the cave the witch came from must be connected to the rest of the lair started double moving, while always turning left. His hope was to come out into the cave where they had dragged Absinthe and rescue her.

The dice turned again and the rat men were beginning to inflict damage against the adventurers but by then Keldin’s gamble had paid off. He reached the rear of the rat men’s defense and saw the Absinthe was OK, just unconscious. He began firing into their rear ranks. Soon the remaining rat men were brought down and finished off. One of Contra’s guards managed to escape and he went to warn the remaining guards at the other guard posts. They decided to flee to the north and then east… right into the dragon’s lair. They were not heard from again.

Absinthe was revived and the party dealt with its wounds and looted the lair. They turned up Vexper and Contra’s room and scratched their heads over the partially working water clock they find there.

The party then decided to follow the cavern passageways north. They eventually wandered into the low cavern containing stone coffins arranged along the walls. Searching them revealed the false bottom of one under which the stone steps lead down to the second level of Barakus. This is where I came across my first big typo in the module. The text reads the stairs come out in the room number that contains the Heart of Darkness, which I thought was odd. That room makes no mention of stairs leading back up. In reality they should lead down to the large room full of mausoleums and the ghast. I did not catch this mistake until much later but it did not change the part of the second level they came out on all that much so I left it. The only problem was that it led to a trap that could potentially kill them all.

The party came out into the room containing the glass sarcophagus set in the floor. The rogue decided to check it out and discovered a hidden compartment protected by a trap way beyond her skill to disarm. The group decided to leave it be and followed the low corridor leading into a hallway lined with mirrors. They soon realized that they were in a vast complex that lay below the caves. Micca recognized the stonework from his dream vision from days back revealing that Kabbal Sharn was still alive.

They began to explore to the north, passing through strange rooms whose purposes and architecture were strange to them. They had no idea who the former inhabitants of Barakus were except that they were great magic users. One room had four huge statue heads set in the corners looking inward towards the center. Another was a torture chamber of some sort filled with the bones of the tormented. Hidden within a secret closet was a weapon of great evil that the party decided not to touch for now. There were workrooms filled with strange tools and in one of those they were attacked by a giant scorpion that they took down with little effort.

The noise of taking down the creature drew the attention of five goblins in the next room who were prepared for combat when the party kicked the door in. Keldin was ecstatic to finally fight his hated foes for the first time and waded right into combat. The goblins went down quickly before they realized they should have run when they had the chance.

The party looted and moved on, heading to the north and finding a staircase leading back up to the caves above. They terminated at a door that Absinthe cautiously opened. She peered into a mist filled cave from which she could hear running water. The elf rogue spent a few seconds surveying the scene before turning back to the party and letting them know what she saw. That is when the invisible mist demon clawed her back, its form now visible within the mist after the attack. Absinthe whimpered and scrambled to the back of the group as the group forced their way past the door and took it down. The creature screamed and evaporated as the mist in the cavern slowly began to filter away with its demise.

With that we decided to call it a night. Absinthe’s player, realizing that she was getting chewed up by being the scout decided that she would change her tactics. XP was awarded and the group realized they were soon coming up on third level. Long term plans were made about character advancement.

As for me, I went on the Necromancer Games boards and started going through the official and not-so-official errata, penciling in the book the changes needed. I was and still am a little peeved about the first to second floor typo mistake that had me dump the party out in the wrong location and decided I would not let that happen again.

Next Up: Paladin Bashing

 

[Scorch]

Adventure 9 Summary

I guess I can comment for a bit about one minor complaint that came up around this session and the one that follows. Along with the XP slowdown that I need to do so the party can finish the module at a challenging level, there is also an income slowdown as well. This is especially noticeable in a game such as ours that has six players plus one NPC and the treasure splits appropriately. The front line fighters were beginning to save up their take of the loot so they could afford some +1 items they new they would need soon. It also didn’t help that the party had been steering around some of the better loot. That would change in these next two sessions.

Feeling a bit worn out after the encounter with the Mist Demon, the party decided to camp for the night in the cave. By barring the door they effectively had a safe area to hole up. I decided that random encounters would not take place in the room under those conditions. I doubt that monsters would wade through the stream. An investigation of the pool the stream ran through turned up some hidden treasure.

After an uneventful night the group head back down the stairs and investigated the door east of the room where they had encountered the goblins. There was only one door to the south (one of the ones I drew in with pencil on the map since it was missing according to the errata on these boards) and a rough hole in the middle of the floor. A quick search of the room turned up a secret door to the north but their investigations alerted the dire weasel living down the hole. It raced out of its lair and attacked Micca.

As soon as I announced the attack I went searching among the plastic minis and got out a dire rat mini.

“What are you doing with that?” asked Aislenn’s player “We just got a dire weasel mini in the new Abominations pack.”

I was pleased as punch that we had a mini exactly matching the encounter.

The weasel missed and did not get to latch on to the cleric (I really wanted to try those rules out). The players dog-piled on it and it went down in a round.

Absinthe had finished checking out the secret door for traps and then turned to Aislenn.

“You go ahead and open it!” the rogue stated.

The elf had decided she would only check for traps and unlock the door but her frail constitution prevented her from actually opening the door and facing whatever was inside first. Aislenn rolled her eyes and kicked in the door…

…and was promptly confronted by a lunging bear. It took a few seconds for the group to realize she was attacking a stuffed animal. The group filed in after the excitement was over and they started investigating the room. Ravenspur turned up a scroll hidden in the bear. During the search Absinthe thought she heard a faint voice coming through a door to the north.

They exited the room into a corridor and the raving voice became louder. The corridor ended in a T-intersection with the glimmer of torchlight coming from the west. Absinthe crept up to the corner and peaked around into a large room with a three-tiered pedestal set in the middle, each tier five feet high. Standing on top was a ragged man in badly maintained armor and a tattered tabard. He was alternately mumbling to himself and screaming at the ceiling above him. The elf rogue noted the deadly looking great sword he had on his back and the bow and arrows he waved around in his hands.

A spot check and knowledge religion by the cleric confirmed that he was wearing the symbols of Kord. The party all agreed that they had found Vladoff, one of the missing adventurers, but that he was not quite right in the head. Micca decided to see if he could talk some senses into him.

Micca’s player role-played this extremely well. He held out his holy symbol and spoke in a calm, even voice. Unfortunately the module is very specific about Vladoff’s actions and I was going to follow the encounter to the letter. Vladoff listened for a few seconds then whipped out his bow and started firing away.

That tore it the party boiled into the room while Micca kept yelling out “Don’t kill him!” They agreed to try and subdue him but first they had to reach him. Everyone but the monk was at a disadvantage when they reached the bottom of the tall pedestal. Adson just started leaping up level by level. There was some discussion what the monk could do with his very high jump and climb skills. Everyone else had to take a full turn action to get up one level. During all this Vladoff was filling them full of arrows as they climbed.

When Adson started climbing the pedestal the fallen paladin dropped his bow and drew his sword. He started making his way down the pedestal so he could escape the room through a passageway to the north. By then the party had him surrounded and tried to subdue him. Aislenn stepped up to engage him.

That was when the paladin opened up with his great sword. I rolled extremely well on damage and Aislenn was almost knocked down to zero. She yelled out that she could not take another blow like that but then decided she did not need to. She dropped her weapon and moved in to grapple, avoiding the AoO.

What then proceeded to happen was a painful slap-fest where-in Vladoff was pummeled into submission. Micca, who had been studying Vladoff very intently noticed the bracers and decided he need to wrestle them off. Since the player was very insistent that he believed the madness to be external in nature I had him make spot checks and he saw the insane runes scrawling across the bracers. He made the intuitive leap and decided they had to go.

With the bracers off they revived the poor paladin who remembered all that he had done while insane. He cried, moaned and beat his chest in grief and it was only Micca talking to him that got the whole story.

Vladoff, Fenton, and the rest of them had been exploring the first level when they encountered the black dragon (“Hello, DRAGON?!?” yelped the ranger). They had stumbled down onto the second level where they were fighting a running battle against a tribe of goblins when they acquired the bracers. Vladoff, in his pride, put them on and went insane. He attacked the others and drove them off but got lost himself. He ended up where our adventurers found him. During the year he spent down there he slew two other adventurers and has been keeping their bodies in a small alcove that he was running to before being subdued .

Realizing that they would need to return him to his temple back in Endhome, the group made preparations to leave. A quick search of the area turned up the dead adventurers’ corpses and their possessions as well as the possessions of Vladoff.

They made their way back up to the first level and decided to travel through the rat-men caves. I had rolled the restock chart and came up with some goblins which the group had no trouble trouncing. The only other encounter on note was with a xorn out in the hills surrounding the cave but they stayed far enough away from it so that it did not smell the precious metals they were hauling back.

The party dropped Vladoff off at the temple along with what they determined to be his possessions. An hour was spent book keeping. Always good since I can take a break, sip a cola, and answer the occasional yes or no questions while they haggle over loot distribution and bemoan the fact that they could not afford the magic items they wanted yet. They were a tip away from third level and I was adamant that they could not gain xp until the end of this night’s session. Micca spent some of his share on sprucing up his temple and he got to role play being a priest to some of the town guardsmen looking for someplace to worship. Ravenspur blew his entire share and then had to borrow some more from Keldin to pick up two wands from the Wizard’s Academy: a color spray wand and a magic missile wand. These turned out to be a very wise investment later on.

After all this was handled they decided they wanted to truck on back to Barakus as quickly as possible. Absinthe was becoming paranoid that other adventurers would find out about what they had found, especially Dagon Ziss and company. She even suggested that Curley Barnes should get some extra payment to impress upon him to not start bragging about town until after they had discovered the missing adventurers and figured out the mystery of the lost city. When they left the city, they took the west gate and then tracked through the wilderness while having Keldin hide their passage. It was well worth it since I had already planned on the evil adventurers to track them but they had no hope of matching the Halfling ranger’s skills in the wilderness.

Halfway there they had a nighttime encounter with an Owl Bear. They were able to spot it coming so the spread out and Aislenn made herself a target. It charged right at her while taking fire and she engaged while the others closed in to flank. It was a well-executed, short combat. Aislenn was a little wrecked up but Micca got her fixed up in a jiffy.

Upon returning to the caves above I rolled the restock table and came up with two ogres. The party was feeling confident so they decided to engage as soon as Absinthe scouted them up ahead. It nearly led to a TPK. The party was just not rolling well and the ogres were rolling a bit too well. Ravenspur attempt to get them both within range of a color spray attack but got his move invoked an AoO and he was down for the count. Two other players were pummeled into unconsciousness before the ogres fell. The party picked themselves up and dragged their sorry behinds back outside to rest for two days in the wilderness. During that time they spotted the red dragon flying off in the distance over the hills. They wisely doused the campfire and hid.

After getting back up to snuff they wandered back down to the second level where they decided to investigate the southern end of the hall of mirrors. There they came across a vast room filled with mausoleums. There, in the cramped quarters between the stone structures they encountered a ghast. The combat took longer than normal due to where the undead creature ambushed them but finally they took it down. A quick search of the rest of the room turned up its treasure.

We decided to call it a night. I calculated up the experience, taking into account the bonus for rescuing Vladoff rather than killing him and for having the bracers destroyed, and awarded it out. The entire group leveled to third and insisted that they camp the night in the mausoleum room so they could take full advantage of their new level for the next adventure.

Next Adventure: Zombies, Ghosts, and Squids