Session 2
We were missing Kavasi (warden) and Lucan (monk). Kavasi would turn up later, when his meeting was done.
Onsday 15th Zeptambor, Year 599
Having eliminated the bandits, our brave heroes without a name (yet!), sat down and chilled a bit, pondering their next move, while healing up. Velkin took a walk around (not inside) the Castle of Flames, looking for perhaps a cave or something else of interest. He soon came running back, having spotted 4 bandits returning from the hunt with a deer.
Our heroes hid in camp, ready to ambush. When they (the bandits) were close enough, Amul charged in, swinging his fullblade with fury. What at first seemed like a walk-over, turned out to be lethal. A few lucky strikes and both Amul and Garel-kai found themselves unconscious, hovering on death's door. Luckily for them, Tokiel's chose that moment to really get in gear and show the bandits just how powerful a sorcerer's magic is, killing almost all of the remaining bandits, with the last one fleeing quicker than you do before an agree Red Dragon...
[sblock=Thoughts]Low-level combats sure are more swingy and unpredictable than epic combats: Of course, it could be party composition, but they still have a defender, leader, controller and striker, so I doubt it. Maybe it's just that the party isn't as well-oiled as the last one, because they haven't found all the leet synergies there is (which is totally normal of course). Either way, I liked this fight. 4 level 2 bandits is a n+1 fight, so it shouldn't cause too much headache. And despite the fact that players had the advantage of surprise, and the bandits spent their first round with all misses, a crit and all hits during the second round turned the table on the players and changed what was looking as a walkover to a battle for their life. I liked this. A lot.
The other thing worth noting is that the sorcerer really not only seems to be effective on paper, but also in actual play. At least, he does a frightening amount of damage for a low-level. Okay, so he got a custom-tailored item that is pretty good, even very good, but still. I am going to have to watch him carefully, and see how the other strikers compare, so I am prepared if someone starts to grumble. [/sblock]
On the bandits the heroes found a treasure map.
[sblock=Thoughts] This was yet another hook. I want them to meet Zanex at some point, the blind fomorian posing as a hermit scholar, living in a hut in the woods. I also wanted to introduce the other planes, in this case the Shadowfell, to the group. The Ancient ruin on the map is really in the Shadowfell, appearing in the mortal world on the 3 days of full moon. Of course, they will need to figure this out.[/sblock]
After that fun-filled incident, the party decided to not stick around. It might be too dangerous, what if more bandits returned. Velkin and Amul got the idea to disguise their tracks and numbers, and then they all left with the mules and wagons, heading east back to Fallcrest. Or rather, heading east right into the woods, stopping once out of sight to rest, because several were pretty beat up by now, and they had no desire to navigate the big and rather dangerous Silent Forest at anything less than full strength.
[sblock=Thoughts]I must really have scared my players with the whole random encounters and Phase Spiders. I can't recall when I have seen them take as many precautions when it comes to moving around. The random encounters do take some time that doesn't advance the story per say, but it does give their group and characters some ... well character, which is also great in an RPG.[/sblock]
Velkin found them a suitable place to rest and hide, and they crashed for the rest of the day, talking about the treasure map and what it meant. Nothing happened during the night either, and at first light, the heroes continued.
[sblock=Thoughts]Another thing I have noticed is how everybody participates in the skill challenge that determines how well they navigate the wilderness. While they have a very gamist approach to it (its just rolling), they are certainly "getting into it", with a lot of yelling and cheering when the others are rolling. I also like how they each are taking charge, they want to participate and are not afraid at attempting rolls even though they maybe only have a +1 or +2 modifier. Best was when the Avenger/Invoker with a bluff check of -1 was attempting to make it look as if they had been more people, to discourage any eventual bandits to not follow them. It was his idea, so he ran with it, instead of passing the roll to the sorcerer with +9. He rolled a 19 so it paid off.[/sblock]
Torsday 16th Zeptambor, Year 599
Most of the next day was uneventful. They traveled east for the whole day, until they were tired. Velkin found them another spot to rest, and after some food, the party crashed for the night, electing to guard-duty in two's.
During the night, they were approached by a Unicorn whose corner of forest they were now in. It wanted to know what they were doing there, but they convinced it that they were merely passing through with some merchant wares, and that they meant no harm to the forest. Rather flabbergasted of having met a real Unicorn, they completely forgot to ask it's name before it was gone.
[sblock=Thoughts]This encounter showed the weakness in the many random encounters, or perhaps a weakness of my DM'ing. I (finally) rolled a non-combat random encounter, and I couldn't (at least this time) come up with something cool. So it just became a insignificant encounter. I wanted more out of it, but perhaps I can use it later on. We will see if it was just a waste of time.[/sblock]
The next day they continued east, with Velkin on point. Around midday, he suddenly heard some arguing in an unknown language. Stealthing ahead of the others, he found 4 goblins arguing (over something) over the body of a human. An attempt to lure them into a trap failed, and Velkin suddenly found himself running back to the others, with 4 howling goblins on his heals.
The goblins fought in an uncharacteristically disciplined way, using their shields to cover for each other, but little good did that do. Our heroes killed them all the same, although one (Velkin) was down and counting.
[sblock=Thoughts]Another n+1 encounter that almost caused a death, something which hasn't happened for a long time. Not sure why. There was no clear advantage of terrain nor surprise, but still, the small buggers proved a good bit harder than I expected. They were pretty standard goblins, with an extra power matching the Hobgoblin Phalanx power (+2 AC when next to another goblin).[/sblock]
After the fight, they continued so quickly they completely forgot to check what the body was.. aah, being a newbie again
Later, towards sunset, as they were approaching civilized lands, they ran into Robin the ranger, who was out hunting goblins and kobolds. They had a little talk with him, but soon moved on, making it to Fallcrest late evening.
Before heading to bed, they went and finished their business with Amara, each getting paid 100 gold pieces for their hard work. They inquired whether she had more work for them, but she said that if they wanted to work, they should talk to the Lord Warden. With the multiple goblin and kobold attacks and with zombies and skeletons running wild in Fallcrest a couple of nights ago, surely the Lord Warden had something they could do.
They decided to get some sleep and headed back to their "rooms" at the Lucky Gnome Taphouse.
Freeday 17th Zeptambor, Year 599
After having only slept a couple of hours, Velkin awoke in the middle of the night to the screams of a woman, coming from outside on the street. He looked out the window and saw a skeleton who had ripped out a rib and was using said rib to bore into the chest of a woman.
Yelling for the others to wake up, Velkin opens a window and tosses some magic at the skeleton. Kavaki jumps out of the bed, graps weapon and shield, and jumps out through the window, pulling with him the window frame. But out he got, and between the two of them, the skeleton soon died. But it was too late to save the woman. The others arrived, and they headed out into town to find out whether there were more instances of undead slaying defenseless victims. But having to wait for the armor-wearers to put on armor cost some time, and by the time they got to the square, the skeletons and zombies had all been slain. They tried to track the undead, but lost the tracks around the bluffs. They figured the undead had come from the crypts built in the bluff, and returned to bed, as they could not find any more clues.
[sblock=Thoughts]Overall, I think our setup is working well. All the info the players should have is posted on our blog, In the room where we play, we have a 90' inch projector, so during play, we have whatever map is relevant, be it the world map, the treasure map or the Fallcrest map, up on the wall. It helps the players a lot, to visualize the world. It also helps a lot when things happen in the city, so that everyone can just look up and place things that I explain, when they move around or such. I mean, no player can remember every NPC or place that a DM invents, but with the info readily at hand on the wall, it almost makes it as if they can.[/sblock]
Lordday 18th Zeptambor, Year 599
Once awake, Velkin and Kavasi headed to visit the wizard in his tower, in order to get identified the new staff of Velkin. But no one was home. After that, the party headed up to see the Lord Warden. He accepted their help, and told them they could either go after kobolds, goblins or handle undead in town. They decided to spend a night laying in ambush near the crypts, in order to perhaps catch a skeleton or two. Or maybe the evil necromancer they think is behind the undead attacks.
Night came, and the heroes hid, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly Velkin spotted some shadowy figures in the middle of a break-in. The thieves (all but one) were attacked and slain inside the house, and as they prepared to turn the last one in, he offered them something better. He told that weird things were happening in the thieves' guild, that a woman called Mistress Adele had taken over the guild, controlling almost everyone with the help of magic. He also told that one of the guild's hideout was in the deserted Moonsong Temple. For this information, he was let go, before the guards arrived.
[sblock=Thoughts]This is yet another hook place, the one about the succubus and the thieves' guild under her command. I have decided that her powers of domination work much longer on low-level NPC's, but that the shapechanging abilities of the wererats have some odd side effects. They are dominated as others, but when they shift, they are no longer dominated. As such, the wererat family, is not under her control, but have stuck around while faking it, not knowing what to do. They want a way out, and see the PC's as that - possibly. [/sblock]
Sonday 19th Zeptambor, Year 599
The next morning, the heroes packed their bags and headed out, aiming to find the pesky kobolds who had attacked the farms several times within the week. They easily found the tracks and followed them into the forest, to the Jade River. The followed the river and the tracks downstream, where there was a possibility of passage. Part of a bridge was still standing, but in order to get to and from the bridge, there was a lot of jumping from rock to rock. As they were almost over the river, 5 kobolds came out of the woods. They had been hiding, waiting for the right moment. Battle started, and it soon proved to be a precarious situation. Velkin was unable to get from rock to rock without help, so he was stuck out on the bridge, 45 feet from land. The others were trying to get to land, but they were assaulted by gluepots and many other things from the kobolds' slings. Kavasi was seconds from dying for good and Garel-kai was in a rough place as well, but, as often before, the heroes managed to get the upper hand at the end.
[sblock=Thoughts]This was a really cool fight that ended being much much closer to a TPK than I thought. n+1 is normally not too bad, but when coupled with a big terrain disadvantage, it can be downright lethal. Of course, I am not pulling any punches, which the paladin felt when suddenly both kobold soldiers tried to push him in the river (he was standing at the edge), with plate and all. There was some great moments, with the warden jumping from rock to rock, charging the kobolds, pushing them all back to make room for the others, only to be downed by the 3 slingers. The Warlord was downed while still out on the rocks, with ongoing damage and with no one able to get to him at that time, at which point he pops a surge (second time that night btw). And when things looked the most bleak, the sorcerer pulled out an AP and tossed two spells which hit all targets, both times, tipping the combat. When the combat was over, the warden and the warlord were still down, with the avenger stuck out on the rocks. The paladin popped a surge on the warlord (he couldn't get to the warden) who stands up and heals the warden. At that point, the warden has 2 failed death saves already and is next in the initiative order, so he was very happy about that.
Worth noting is that we roll death saves behind a screen, so the others in the party do not know how bad things are. We prefer this to avoid all the silly metagaming that inevitably (in our experience) comes with knowing how badly hurt others are. We do not tell how wounded we are either, just bloodied or not bloodied.
Also, I instituted another house rule:
[sblock=Potion House Rule]
9) You can only drink 1 non-healing potion per encounter. Drinking more than 1 potion causes great internal damage (lose 1 healing surge and take damage equal to your healing surge value). Should anyone be stupid (or daring) enough to drink a third potion during the same encounter, he will lose 2 healing surges and take damage equal to 2x healing surge value. A 4th potion will kill you (lose 4 surges and take damage equal to 4x healing surge value)
Why? - Well, with the removal of magic item creation, it gives me the liberty to control the flow of potions. I want potions to be a bonus, not the deciding factor in important fights. Meaning, to avoid hoarding of the potions, we are going to go oldschool and see if the mixing of potions can't detract people from doing just that.. [/sblock][/sblock]
I was so much happier with this session. We had some good fights, and the plot/world opened up a lot more. They now have several hooks (bandits, kobolds, goblins, undead in town, treasure map, thieves' guild) and I have no idea what they will chose.
Regarding the AP-debate. I must admit that I like my own houserule less and less. It just makes it non-special to use the AP and removes a lot of the choices behind the mechanic. I think I am going to recommend that we remove it.
