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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 7576029" data-attributes="member: 16069">We D&D.Session #15b Hoard of the Dragon Queen #1b Enter the Dragon (Cultists).Starring the Brothers of the First Light-Ray the Zealot (played by Pete) Male Human Paladin of Lathander Lvl 1Lummins (played by Rob) Male Half-Elf Cleric of Lathander Lvl 1Lux (played by Sandy) Female Human Warlock Lvl 1Watt (played by Jackie) Male Human Bard Lvl 1Note, this is session #15 of our game but (obviously) only session #1 of our Hoard of the Dragon Queen scenario.Episode 1: Greenest In Flames.The four secondary PCs (Hotlips Houlihan, Hard Bonk, Sgt. Harald Hardaxe & Derek Pilch) are in Greenest, and probably having fun already (see below), we’ll encounter them as and when they’re needed.All four Brothers of the First Light (Ray, Lummins, Lux & Watt) have each received a message from the Church of Lathander asking them to meet in Greenest, and to talk to Eadyan Falconmoon, the priest of Lathander, there. The messages are marked urgent, and thus the Brothers meet up in Baldur’s Gate and from there take transport to Greenest, arriving at dusk…Slightly different start than in the module, I wanted the PCs to arrive in a town that was suspiciously quiet (at first), and then slowly discover the bad things that are going on. So, no dragon to begin with, no screams, the place seems… well, deserted.And so…The Brothers of the First Light get down from the coach that has brought them here and soon enough start to wonder what’s going on- Greenest seems to be unnaturally dark, perhaps there’s even the smell of smoke, and every now and then a sudden sharp noise on the wind- people crying out?Then the screams get suddenly louder as a bunch of townsfolk rush out from an alley way, a husband and wife (the man badly wounded and dragging one leg), and three young children (also screaming and crying)- the quintet are clearly terrified as racing after them come a bunch of Kobolds.Neither group has seen the Brothers of the First Light- time to act.[ATTACH=full]112983[/ATTACH]There’s going to be less detail in this write up- no blow by blow account of the fights, just the significant details.The Brothers of the First Light get in to action, and in particular Lummins (Half-Elf Cleric) who bathes the Kobolds in fire- Burning Hands, the result of which is five of the eight little buggers are incinerated, Linan Swift (the female villager) turns and throws a spear in to another Kobold (a Crit) and it dies, Lux (Human Warlock) repeats the feat with an Eldritch Blast (with Crit), and three-for-three Watt (Human Bard) fires an arrow (with a third Crit- the two PC attacks are at advantage but still- three ‘20’s in a row). In short less than ten seconds later and there are eight dead Kobolds, that works.Oh, and Ray the Zealot (Human Paladin) didn’t even get an attack roll, initiative ‘3’, what was he thinking?There follows a frantic chat with Linan Swift and her family- in hysterical summary (actually she’s the calm one- her husband Cuth is panicked, and bleeding badly from his leg) “the town is taken, they’re everywhere, we have to get to the Keep!”Which results in a WTF moment.Linan insists the group finds cover, and there patiently (but quickly) explains “there are men in Greenest, rough-looking men- bandits and worse, and those creatures (points to dead Kobold). The bastards have torched the old Town Hall, I saw them kill at least five watchmen, and… others, lots of others. The only safe place is the Keep- we have to get there… we have to! My children!”The Brothers have other questions but Linan (true to her name) is moving swiftly, the PCs get cursory answers (also because I don’t want to give too much away too soon).Note, I wanted a nastier version of the Dragon Cultist’s invasion of Greenest, so I thought I’d use the Episode 1 Encounters table for the encounters on the way to the Keep, and also to show the PCs some of the sights- other things that are going on in town (see below).The group moves off however they’ve not gone far when ahead a bunch of rough-looking men exit a building (Cultist x4 & Guard x2) and almost walk in to the PCs.The Brothers of the First Light go for the chat, or else Watt does, approaches and remarkably (after two skill checks over ‘20’) the bad guys stop to listen. Beyond the sextet the Brothers can see in to the building the bad guys are exiting- there are dead people on the floor, recently slaughtered.[ATTACH=full]112984[/ATTACH]Watt is polite and wants to know what’s going on, while the Cultists want to know why Watt and his friends are not running from them right now, and also trying to work out if they can take our guys, but mainly just buying time.As soon as Watt gets in toe-to-toe with the lead Cultist he hits the Thunderwave button (and I fail every one of my saves- DC 13), all six bad guys are killed in an instant.The sound of the player’s laughter as I failed my sixth save in a row will haunt me for many years.The Brothers grab the bodies and drag them in to the house- at which point they discover that worse has been done to the former inhabitants of the place before they were slaughtered. Ray (played by Pete) explodes in fury- there’s a lot of “we’re going to kill all of them”, only with far more swear words.The Brothers take a moment to investigate the slaughter, and in particular to examine the bodies of the bad guys- after a few good rolls they’re convinced that four of the guys are soldiers (clean-shaven, a bit more professional-looking) and two are mercenaries or bandits.And so, we go on… or rather the Brothers and the Swift family do, to the Keep.En route they observe more of the (Cultist) invaders, too far away for the PCs to intervene, led by a spell-caster (possibly a Cleric- they see the guy use a Command spell to stop a fleeing man, or else that’s what Lummins thinks- he’s spot on). They drag the screaming captive away. The DM is cranking up the nasty- and the players are not happy about it.A short while later however the Brothers sight a quartet of Kobolds leading a large lizard (Ambush Drake) down one of the streets, Ray (Pete) gets his wish- or at least the other players are keen to appease him (or over-confident after the first two fights). The PCs get the drop on the Kobolds and attempt to smush the bad guys quickly.[ATTACH=full]112985[/ATTACH]Things do not go entirely to plan, two of the Kobolds and the Drake survive the Brother’s surprise attack, the two Kobolds go running off in to the night screaming, while the Ambush Drake (which is a whole lot tougher than the PCs figured) is eventually hacked to pieces.The Brothers and Linan family get on again towards the Keep, and on the way get to see (at too greater distance to affect, again) a bunch more townsfolk falling in to the clutches of half-a-dozen or more rough-men (more Cultists). The Brothers can do nothing about this, they do however observe that the townsfolk are being dragged away towards (Linan tells them) the centre of the town. There could be something going on there…Soon after they spot a bunch more townsfolk who also spot them and in panic flee in to a nearby house, the Brothers enter with Linan ahead trying desperately to calm the townsfolk down. Their honeyed words work! The Brothers have four more potential survivors to get back to the Keep (that’s nine), worse still one of the new batch is a decrepit old man, “I’m seventy-four! No, ratty Kobold is going to eat me!”, the old geezer shouts repeatedly.The house they’re in has a second floor, the PCs head upstairs to see if they can see where the townsfolk are being taken, they can- in the centre of Greenest a huge number (over 50?) invaders- bad men and Kobolds have gathered, the captured townsfolk are being herded in to a building (the Greenest General Store, Linan informs them). As they watch a robed figure steps forward from a smaller group (a Command Group?) and Fireballs the building, incinerating the majority of the townsfolk in an instant. Half-a-dozen human torches escape the ruins and stumble about a while before being consumed by the flames.For a better depiction of this scene see Klimov’s ‘Come and See’- the flame-thrower scene, it’s a harrowing film- that’s what I was aiming for in-game.The Brothers are incensed, the players motivated, and Ray (Pete) apoplectic.They also make sure they get a good look at the robed guy that just killed the townsfolk, this is Rath Modar, we’ll meet him much later- the Brothers commit his likeness to memory (although they’re viewing the scene from quite a distance).The sad (and maddening) moment is dispelled in an instant when a flying Kobold (an Urd) suddenly alights on a window ledge and begins screaming threats (in Draconic) at the Brothers et al. Watt instantly replies (all of the Brothers speak Draconic- I think) stating that he and his companions have just captured the townsfolk here present (making out that the Brothers are with the bad guys- very prescient of him). He goes on to invite (with help from his Friends spell) the Winged Kobold in. Oddly, the Urd accepts the offer and enters through the window (a ‘20’ will do that).[ATTACH=full]112986[/ATTACH]Seconds later Lux hits the Kobold with an Eldritch Blast, Ray stabs it but Lummins misses with his Sacred Flame. The Urd starts screaming and suddenly there are more (Draconic) shouts on the stairs- a bunch of Kobolds (six of them) and a rough-looking fellow (a Cultist), are accompanying the Urd- now they’re coming upstairs to see what the noise is all about. The Brothers cannot talk their way out of this one…The fight is frenetic, Linan Swift is stabbed and badly wounded while another of the townsfolk is clubbed to death, Ray the Zealot gives it all he’s got- he decapitates three Kobolds (including the Urd), the ferocious Paladin of Lathander never misses. Watt takes a Kobold out with his bow, Lux kills another with an Eldritch Blast, while Lummins kills the last pair of little terrors, and badly burns the rough fellow (Cultist) with his favourite Burning Hands.The heavily wounded bad guy (Cultist) attempts to flee back down the stairs and out of the house, screaming all the way. We make opposed checks for the chase, with the bad guy (Cultist) being one double move ahead of the PCs- I roll a ‘1’, and then another ‘1’ for my guy, it takes us five minutes of rolls and chatter to get to my second ‘1’, at which point I retire the D20 in question (I throw it out of the window and in to the garden). The bad guy (Cultist) is grabbed, dragged back in to the building and then pumped for info (which is clever of the PCs).They learn (with help from a Friends spell or two- Watt & Lux both have it in their repertoire) the following-a)    The fellow is a member of the Dragon Cult, which causes uproar in da ‘ouse!b)    The Dragon Cult is in the process of “collecting a great horde to usher in the reign of the Queen of Dragons.”A little more chatter and it becomes clear that the Dragon Cultists are in Greenest for money and valuables, the killing of the townsfolk is just for pleasure. And this is the moment when Pete, and then Rob (with a little help from Pete) figure out which scenario we are playing- Hoard of the Dragon Queen.Very clever Mr. DM, Sir. We’re ex-Dragon Cultists who are going to have to put an end to the evil machinations of… well, the Dragon Cult (and Dragons, of course).There follows a fifteen-minute break in play for Rob and Pete (and me a little) to catch the other two players (Jackie & Sandy) up on a variety of issues that arise, like- Who is the Dragon Queen? What’s a Tiamat? Why has she got five heads? And a bunch of other stuff. Basically Jackie & Sandy have little interest in D&D or the D&D milieu, or indeed RPGs in general, or even the Fantasy Fiction genre, the pair have never read Tolkien- nor have they any desire to do so. They like playing this game- “It’s like a board game, only without a board… and there’s bad stuff to kill, and treasure, and you get to do stuff- and Paul (that’s me) decides how well we do when we roll the dice”, which is how Jackie described it to a friend, I think the marketing people have missed a trick there.The filthy Dragon Cultist is put to the sword by Ray the Zealot, and with the townsfolk watching on, that however is the end of the first session of play- we went on for a good long while (remember they also rolled up two PCs each in this session), no-one wanted to stop playing. The fights were really one-sided at the start with the Brothers getting up-close to the bad guys, followed by some great spell attacks- and better rolls (although my dice were broken). The last two fights were much more dangerous, the Ambush Drake took quite a beating (but didn’t land a single hit), while in the last fight the Cultists & the Kobolds (& Urd) even managed to connect a few times, and also slaughtered one of the townsfolk, and left the heroic Linan bleeding.The roleplay was brilliant in places- these guys have all the skills (they’re very good at just making up stories that are convincing) to make the most of their special status- ex-Dragon Cultists turned to the side of Light (Choose Light!), and in the best position possible to help Greenest and its citizens.The players loved it, they’re pumped for the next session.[ATTACH=full]112987[/ATTACH]KEY: A= Arrive in Greenest, Kobolds attack Linan Swift & Family. B= The Dragon Cultists are killing the townsfolk. C= Kobolds & the Ambush Drake. D= The Urd and Friends. E= Burning the Townsfolk. F= Greenest Keep.</blockquote>

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