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<blockquote data-quote="Elfshire" data-source="post: 6182838" data-attributes="member: 77291"><p>At the start of the next session, I tried to really play up the level of tension in the RHC office over the following week or so - everyone knew that the Duchess was now a traitor to the crown, and moreover she'd gone and taken over a Danor-controlled island. I told the players that everything was being done to downplay the seriousness of these events to the populace, but in reality it was pretty likely that either a civil war or a Fifth Yerasol War would start anytime now. Or even both at once.</p><p></p><p>So when Lya Jierre showed up, it was almost a relief, at least until the party experienced just how cold she could be. She barely spoke a word to the disowned Darsys, and she was outright patronizing to Qiyet: "Oh, you were educated in Danor? Yes, I think I remember your thesis. It was... interesting, I suppose."</p><p></p><p>The PCs were even less impressed by the idea that they wouldn't even be taking point on this mission. It was now that I mentioned that the five of them were essentially assigned to what the Flint office referred to as "Team 2." Team 1 consisted of highly-trained individuals who'd been promoted to the Shale office some time ago, and out of deference to their accomplishments, no constables had been given the honor of their team's previous numerical title. But, being under orders, the party went along for the ride on the Impossible and met up with them. </p><p></p><p>Most of players immediately lost all respect for Tanya - the running joke in my gaming group is that shamans are the worst class in all of 4e. But Qiyet unexpectedly developed a near-instant crush on Seven-Foot Dan, and readily took him up on his offer to go up on the main deck and break stuff.</p><p></p><p>Fast-forward past the tense moments after Team 1 disembarked from the ship and underwater for a suspiciously long time. Drew went ahead, finding poor Burton with his leg smashed and pinned... he decided an impromptu amputation was the best way to help him. Rutger paled when he realized half the constables along on this stealth mission were already taken out of commission, but my players bravely forged ahead with no hope of the cavalry coming to save them.</p><p></p><p>The fight against Dupiers was tough, since most of the party had next to nothing in the form of ranged attacks, but eventually they managed to struggle their way up the platforms and subdue him. As expected, they snatched up the golden icons with fairly little thought as to their larger significance, though Qiyet at least was able to figure out that the dots on one side represented constellations (I created custom pixelized art representing the artistic drawings of each planet for the main sides of each coin). I decided that the icon of Nem was blank, but symbols appeared in its surface if you looked at it with your newly-gained darkvision.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH]58966[/ATTACH][ATTACH]58967[/ATTACH][ATTACH]58968[/ATTACH]</p><p>After trekking across the island (and totally avoiding the headless golem), they made their way into Axis Fort and proceeded to massively foul up their Stealth checks. More on that later.</p><p></p><p>The lighthouse defenders was a pretty fun encounter - though I'd hoped to get more use out of the wizard before he bit it in the second or third round when Qiyet used an Avilona-assisted flying charge plus an action point to kill him in two hits. The minions were almost useless, between Arthur's high AC and Qiyet's resist 5 all from the icon of Urim.</p><p></p><p>Even with all their failed Stealth, the Lighthouse Standoff was pretty easy when they figured out that even one point of barricade could hold back any number of troops for the whole round, after which they could just build another one. nobody thought to use the flaming oil to take out troops in front of the door, and when I pointed this option out to them afterwards, most of the players seemed resentful at the fact that the game asked them to learn an entirely new and unfamiliar hybrid of combat and skill challenge in one go, AND expected them to think outside the box while doing so. </p><p></p><p>The advent of Asrabey's arrival was used as a cliffhanger to end the session. When we picked up again, I tried to drop some hints that the 'fire monster' was really just an eladrin warrior, but the party wasn't really catching on. It got to the point where I had to spell it out to them directly, somewhere around the time when they were confronting him inside the tower and they were STILL calling him that. Strange how they get hung up sometimes.</p><p></p><p>They interrupted my 'boxed text moment,' some of the faster/more ranged-capable PCs thinking they could hit him as he approached the inner wall. I really should've just said "he's too far away, by the time you get over there he's already speeding away through the patch of jungle where the wall used to be," but instead I did an ad-hoc combat encounter. I tried to focus on getting him out of there first and foremost, but in hindsight I wish I'd just once let him turn around and swing at a PC so I could've said "Hm, how's an attack roll against AC 43 sound?" Maybe that would've given them the fear I was trying to instill in them!</p><p></p><p>Gillie Dhu was kind of an awkward moment, I admit I introduced him kind of ham-handedly. It would've helped if I'd put a little more thought into him beforehand, but I also think the adventure didn't do a very good job of explaining why he was there in the first place, or why he'd attack the PCs who clearly had it out for the jerk that already burnt up his hedges.</p><p></p><p>I unfortunately HAD to railroad things a bit from this point. With a few shouted insults and baffled questions on the constables' part, I ended the fight with Gillie after the first round or so, especially since I realized he could easily beat the crap out of them to the point where they wouldn't stand a chance against Asrabey, even with their entourage of minions. So Gillie apologized and made a wall of ivy for them to climb up to the roof. Qiyet made it up there way before anyone else, but I knew if she burst down the door she'd get fried and end up having a terrible time the rest of the night. So I kinda forced her to sit up on the roof and listen to the 'cutscene' dialog between Asrabey, Nathan, and Ethelyn. Hopefully they'll realize later in the campaign just how important that little exchange was.</p><p></p><p>To their credit, once everyone was in the room, they DID try to talk Asrabey down, but eventually they decided they just didn't want to give Asrabey pretty much any of the things he was asking for: Nathan as a prisoner and/or Ethelyn's death. So they fought - I used his level 2 solo stats since it sounded like more of a fun encounter, not to mention the fact that using his normal numbers would mean that only Hugo and the nameless flunkies would actually be able to damage him, since most of the PC's half-damage-on-a-miss powers were long gone.</p><p></p><p>Before this session had started, Drew's player had approached me, saying he wanted to play a different character, one that better filled in some of the party's needs. I agreed to allow him to switch, as long as I got to kill off his current one in dramatic fashion. Sure enough, the opportunity presented itself during the fight, and Asrabey got one or two lucky hits, managing to drop the Warlord. For a second, I was worried that they'd just pick him back up at the end of the fight... but the dice gods were with me that night. He used his Close Burst attack and critted the helpless Drew, taking him WAY into the negatives, prompting a fit of giggles from the player himself and horrified stares from everyone else at the table. Classic. </p><p></p><p>Qiyet decided she didn't like seeing her friends turned into a magic-item-covered mound of ash, so she answered this little slight with an axe-blow to the neck, killing Asrabey not-so-permanently (not that she knows that).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elfshire, post: 6182838, member: 77291"] At the start of the next session, I tried to really play up the level of tension in the RHC office over the following week or so - everyone knew that the Duchess was now a traitor to the crown, and moreover she'd gone and taken over a Danor-controlled island. I told the players that everything was being done to downplay the seriousness of these events to the populace, but in reality it was pretty likely that either a civil war or a Fifth Yerasol War would start anytime now. Or even both at once. So when Lya Jierre showed up, it was almost a relief, at least until the party experienced just how cold she could be. She barely spoke a word to the disowned Darsys, and she was outright patronizing to Qiyet: "Oh, you were educated in Danor? Yes, I think I remember your thesis. It was... interesting, I suppose." The PCs were even less impressed by the idea that they wouldn't even be taking point on this mission. It was now that I mentioned that the five of them were essentially assigned to what the Flint office referred to as "Team 2." Team 1 consisted of highly-trained individuals who'd been promoted to the Shale office some time ago, and out of deference to their accomplishments, no constables had been given the honor of their team's previous numerical title. But, being under orders, the party went along for the ride on the Impossible and met up with them. Most of players immediately lost all respect for Tanya - the running joke in my gaming group is that shamans are the worst class in all of 4e. But Qiyet unexpectedly developed a near-instant crush on Seven-Foot Dan, and readily took him up on his offer to go up on the main deck and break stuff. Fast-forward past the tense moments after Team 1 disembarked from the ship and underwater for a suspiciously long time. Drew went ahead, finding poor Burton with his leg smashed and pinned... he decided an impromptu amputation was the best way to help him. Rutger paled when he realized half the constables along on this stealth mission were already taken out of commission, but my players bravely forged ahead with no hope of the cavalry coming to save them. The fight against Dupiers was tough, since most of the party had next to nothing in the form of ranged attacks, but eventually they managed to struggle their way up the platforms and subdue him. As expected, they snatched up the golden icons with fairly little thought as to their larger significance, though Qiyet at least was able to figure out that the dots on one side represented constellations (I created custom pixelized art representing the artistic drawings of each planet for the main sides of each coin). I decided that the icon of Nem was blank, but symbols appeared in its surface if you looked at it with your newly-gained darkvision. [ATTACH=CONFIG]58966._xfImport[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]58967._xfImport[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]58968._xfImport[/ATTACH] After trekking across the island (and totally avoiding the headless golem), they made their way into Axis Fort and proceeded to massively foul up their Stealth checks. More on that later. The lighthouse defenders was a pretty fun encounter - though I'd hoped to get more use out of the wizard before he bit it in the second or third round when Qiyet used an Avilona-assisted flying charge plus an action point to kill him in two hits. The minions were almost useless, between Arthur's high AC and Qiyet's resist 5 all from the icon of Urim. Even with all their failed Stealth, the Lighthouse Standoff was pretty easy when they figured out that even one point of barricade could hold back any number of troops for the whole round, after which they could just build another one. nobody thought to use the flaming oil to take out troops in front of the door, and when I pointed this option out to them afterwards, most of the players seemed resentful at the fact that the game asked them to learn an entirely new and unfamiliar hybrid of combat and skill challenge in one go, AND expected them to think outside the box while doing so. The advent of Asrabey's arrival was used as a cliffhanger to end the session. When we picked up again, I tried to drop some hints that the 'fire monster' was really just an eladrin warrior, but the party wasn't really catching on. It got to the point where I had to spell it out to them directly, somewhere around the time when they were confronting him inside the tower and they were STILL calling him that. Strange how they get hung up sometimes. They interrupted my 'boxed text moment,' some of the faster/more ranged-capable PCs thinking they could hit him as he approached the inner wall. I really should've just said "he's too far away, by the time you get over there he's already speeding away through the patch of jungle where the wall used to be," but instead I did an ad-hoc combat encounter. I tried to focus on getting him out of there first and foremost, but in hindsight I wish I'd just once let him turn around and swing at a PC so I could've said "Hm, how's an attack roll against AC 43 sound?" Maybe that would've given them the fear I was trying to instill in them! Gillie Dhu was kind of an awkward moment, I admit I introduced him kind of ham-handedly. It would've helped if I'd put a little more thought into him beforehand, but I also think the adventure didn't do a very good job of explaining why he was there in the first place, or why he'd attack the PCs who clearly had it out for the jerk that already burnt up his hedges. I unfortunately HAD to railroad things a bit from this point. With a few shouted insults and baffled questions on the constables' part, I ended the fight with Gillie after the first round or so, especially since I realized he could easily beat the crap out of them to the point where they wouldn't stand a chance against Asrabey, even with their entourage of minions. So Gillie apologized and made a wall of ivy for them to climb up to the roof. Qiyet made it up there way before anyone else, but I knew if she burst down the door she'd get fried and end up having a terrible time the rest of the night. So I kinda forced her to sit up on the roof and listen to the 'cutscene' dialog between Asrabey, Nathan, and Ethelyn. Hopefully they'll realize later in the campaign just how important that little exchange was. To their credit, once everyone was in the room, they DID try to talk Asrabey down, but eventually they decided they just didn't want to give Asrabey pretty much any of the things he was asking for: Nathan as a prisoner and/or Ethelyn's death. So they fought - I used his level 2 solo stats since it sounded like more of a fun encounter, not to mention the fact that using his normal numbers would mean that only Hugo and the nameless flunkies would actually be able to damage him, since most of the PC's half-damage-on-a-miss powers were long gone. Before this session had started, Drew's player had approached me, saying he wanted to play a different character, one that better filled in some of the party's needs. I agreed to allow him to switch, as long as I got to kill off his current one in dramatic fashion. Sure enough, the opportunity presented itself during the fight, and Asrabey got one or two lucky hits, managing to drop the Warlord. For a second, I was worried that they'd just pick him back up at the end of the fight... but the dice gods were with me that night. He used his Close Burst attack and critted the helpless Drew, taking him WAY into the negatives, prompting a fit of giggles from the player himself and horrified stares from everyone else at the table. Classic. Qiyet decided she didn't like seeing her friends turned into a magic-item-covered mound of ash, so she answered this little slight with an axe-blow to the neck, killing Asrabey not-so-permanently (not that she knows that). [/QUOTE]
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