Who Has Actually Played/Run Burning Sky

[maggot]

Sounds like you had an easy time with the fight. Are your PCs 1st or 2nd level?

First level, five chars, with pretty high stats. (We rolled: one guy rolled two 18s; another rolled nothing under 14. The rest are just simply above average for 4d6 drop 1.)

[sblock]If I had to run the fight over again, I would have the thugs downstairs break in automatically after one round or have the upstairs rogues come down on the first round. Or I would have the bomb hit after round two or maybe even after the first round. I might even do all three to add to the chaos. As it was, the characters would not stay downstairs for three rounds before the bomb struck.

In my case, they were already done upstairs and returned for the bomb hit. As soon as I mentioned a sound upstairs, the characters were grabbing weapons and running for the stairs. Of course, I only had them meet the two rogues from the stat block upstairs not all six that are mentioned in the text.[/sblock]

 

[RangerWickett]

What I had in mind is that the two scouts are standing just at the top of the staircase, so it's impossible to head upstairs past them (1st level PCs should not be making DC 25 tumble checks while running up stairs). So if the PCs tried to go upstairs, they would run into the two half-orcs, see even more behind them raring to go, and get scared. After a round or two of combat, the bomb strikes.

In the playtest I ran, the PCs were all sitting around the table, not holding their weapons, so they couldn't just run upstairs and start fighting. They gathered their weapons, moved to the base of the stairs, and made plans. And yes, the thugs at the door spent three rounds hammering away with a battering ram, accomplishing nothing.

 

[maggot]

Interesting, my players were quite a bit more paranoid than that. The combat types stood guard at key points around the room while the others discussed tactics. And even those guys were ready. I think the exchange went DM: "you hear a creeking board up stairs", Cleric: "I stand up and cast bless".

Next session is tomorrow. I can't wait.

 

[Chimera]

The part I liked best in our one and only session so far (we're once-a-month) was when I (playing the Bard) suggested that someone check the door to outside, wondering whether or not someone was coming from that direction or whether or not it would be wise to retreat out to the street once we heard the guys upstairs.

The Monk moves over and opens the door, only to find four somewhat surprised mercenaries holding the battering ram.

They smacked the Monk with it instead, sending him below 0 hp for the first of three(?) times in that combat.

I started joking about the Monk and his problems, because he had a bad tendency to get knocked down over and over in the session.

Meanwhile I believe that I made the first kill (bow shot) and that I probably did more damage overall than the Fighter, who was rolling horribly all night.

 

[JDragon]

My groups first session will be tonight.

I have 3 players, so they are doing geshalt characters.

The group is made up of...
Human: rogue/wizard - going for Invisible Blade/Daggerspell Mage
Dwarf: Fighter/Cleric
Human: Barbarian/Druid - need to look at PrC's for him (any suggestions?)

Hopefully it will go well.

JD

 

[meomwt]

The Monk moves over and opens the door, only to find four somewhat surprised mercenaries holding the battering ram.

That's so funny. My monitor was in danger of being sprayed with coffee.

I'm almost tempted to add it to my sig line.

 

[crow81]

Spoilers in this post

We played our first game this week. It was a blast.

The party consisted of:

2 Rangers
Wizard
Favored Soul
Rogue

We play with 2 GMs to keep the action moving The party heard the noise upstairs and charged the stair case. The Rogue was up stairs when the bomb hit. The remaining scouts knocked him out cold. The party held their own.

They grappled the gnome realzied the ruse but he escaped and thinking the other creature was on their side (how could it not be total metagame back fire) they watched it follow him right out the window.

They caught up with the group at the academy and the rogue slipped into the villians quarters invis, move silently, tumble check while the challange was being offered.

He stole the pouch then blocked the window while the rest charged the room.

A well placed color spray turned the tables.

The night ended at the encounter on the way to the safe house.

Can't wait for the next game I'll get them next time

 

[maggot]

We finished our third game, and our party is still at the Gabal's. The greasy student and the floating griffin carcass turned into a full-fledged necromantic side quest.

The party wasn't careful of Shealis at all. In fact, the fire wizard wanted to duel her himself (but was restrained). Shealis got off both fireballs, with only one death: Torrent. Second level barbarians have a lot of hit points, and Torrent's wand of cure light wounds is very handy.

I want to get on to the next adventure, but the party has such fun creating side quests out of stuff that I don't want to intervene. Half of our second game was spent tracking down relatives to the boy whose family was murdered by the Ragesian wyvern rider.

 

[RangerWickett]

Anyone have a status update? Has anyone made it to the second adventure yet? I'm very eager to hear stories from your games.

 

[maggot]

We just finished Act 2 of Adventure 1. Some of the fights drew on quite long because of damage resistance, and there were two side quests in the four games. I'm hoping to speed through Acts 3&4 in one sitting. I'm dying to run the Fire Forest.