Zad/Wizardru's Story Hour (*final update 11/12*)

[thatdarncat]

How'd you accomplish it?

The other DM in our group is a little bit more permissive. And allows broken stats. And broken character builds.

For some reason he hasn't been asked to run anything for a while.

I made the mistake of allowing WizarDru to use my d6's, which seem to roll high.

A block of Chessex mini d6s by any chance?

And for the record, this post was more interesting than the Transporter 2

 

[Zad]

Then Astird did something on the odds of 68 points of damage and a little piece of me died inside.

Making up for all the parts of Bellsin that died on the outside.


Unprepared, the hydra was death on wheels.

Prepared, it was dead on ice. The contrast was stark. For my part all I did was miss it, but I think I was the sink for Astrid's miss-happy d20

The conversational elements was, for a change, not synthetic. I had a circuit breaker trip that has only tripped once before, and I was ready to walk away. The first time was in the arbitrary death-trap-fest that is Nightfang Spire. (In that case a poorly written, arbitrary module.) This time, the trend of a dragon then cryohydra was enough to make me sure I didn't want to deal with what lay beyond. Elizabeth was fully ready to turn around and go home.

In character, I'm still ready to cut and run if it looks like we can't handle whatever comes next. Out of character, I'm hoping it's one of those module tricks where they put a big beasty up front (gee, also like Nightfang Spire) and the rest will have a more appropriate CR. But I'm still perfectly ready to leave.

 

[dravot]

A block of Chessex mini d6s by any chance?

And for the record, this post was more interesting than the Transporter 2

It's a cube of 16 purple transparent d6's (typical size) that I've had for ages. On 16d6, they'll roll +6 - +8 over average (as an estimate)

 

[WizarDru]

In character, I'm still ready to cut and run if it looks like we can't handle whatever comes next. Out of character, I'm hoping it's one of those module tricks where they put a big beasty up front (gee, also like Nightfang Spire) and the rest will have a more appropriate CR. But I'm still perfectly ready to leave.

The DM is monitoring the situation. Zenith Trajectory is NOT NICE....but the whys and wherefores will become apparent later. The party, post-hydra, has just hit 6th. This will make things somewhat easier, although a discussion was had that the adventure path assumes six party members and there needs to be something of a contingency when that isn't the case, as here.

It didn't suck that Bellsin rolled a natural 20 on his Move Silent check at the same time that they Hydra made a poor Listen check. Bellsin got a 32, iirc, with a -10 circumstance penalty versus the Hydra's 7+9=16.

 

[Scorch]

I had a circuit breaker trip that has only tripped once before, and I was ready to walk away. The first time was in the arbitrary death-trap-fest that is Nightfang Spire. (In that case a poorly written, arbitrary module.)

In the six to seven years that we have grouped together playing Dungeons and Dragons, this is the third time we have had a major problem with a module. You all have seen the first two mentioned here, last weekend's session and Nightfang Spire. The third was "The Module That Must Not Be Named". It was so bad that we ret-conned it out of the Story Hour and all agreed it never happened.

I also know what it is like to run an encounter that you begin to think halfway through "ZOMG! I think I'm gonna kill all of them. Do I have a clear run up the stairs and out of the house if that happens?" but usually the players rally halfway through and school whatever challenge I have laid out. Only once did I have an encounter that I created that they had to retreat from but then again, so did the enemy they were fighting. It only made the group more determined to track down their opponents to the ends of the earth (or in this case, the ends of the module map) and destroy them once and for all.

Scorch

 

[dravot]

It's hard to say. YMMV, but the dragon wasn't too bad. They basically reduced the CR of the dragon by having him injured from a previous fight with the other dragon. I'm not 100% sure about a reduction in HP as worth a reduction in CR, but we pulled it out.

Where we went wrong was in assuming that the hydra was intelligent, and thus we had to fight now, rather than retreat and prepare with the knowledge that it wasn't going to ambush us - or even scout, consider and prep on the stairs rather than charge.

Live and learn. Or almost die and learn. Or something.

(and we decided that it's not combat unless Bellsin hits negative HP)

 

[Morrow]

Zenith Trajectory is NOT NICE....but the whys and wherefores will become apparent later.

Very true. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that the dragon and then the hydra isn't the last, "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too," sequence in Zenith Trajectory. That being said, ZT has got some really fun encounters. Either the party is going to walk out of this one with some cool stories to tell or they aren't going to walk out at all.

Morrow

 

[Jarrod]

I really, really, REALLY wasn't a fan of the hydra in this module. Or the dragon, for that matter.

The hydra was just dumb. It was a big glass cannon. If you got near it unprepared, you died - that breath weapon is just stupid. Otherwise, you could kill it with hardly a scratch. Do you have a wizard who knows scorching ray and fireball? You're set. It wasn't a monster, it was a trap.

The dragon... well, in the magazine versions there was no backplot to why he was there. Just a dragon flying around that you had to kill. Of course, he had to be stupid and land because if he just strafed all day you were dead. So it was a stupid dragon - survive the first breath weapon and then you could kill it. Again, a trap and not a real encounter.

Bad bad bad design.

On the other hand, the remainder of the module was quite good. Tough, don't get me wrong - very hard and deadly. But good, and it made sense.

 

[WizarDru]

The hydra was just dumb. It was a big glass cannon. If you got near it unprepared, you died - that breath weapon is just stupid. Otherwise, you could kill it with hardly a scratch. Do you have a wizard who knows scorching ray and fireball? You're set. It wasn't a monster, it was a trap.

We prefer the term 'Eggshells with Hammers'. Quite honestly, I didn't expect them to charge the Hydra sans preparation when they snuck up on it, but not knowing that it was just an animal and not a dragon-like intelligence will do that to you. I expected what they eventually did do, which was retreat, buff and then strike hard.

The dragon... well, in the magazine versions there was no backplot to why he was there. Just a dragon flying around that you had to kill. Of course, he had to be stupid and land because if he just strafed all day you were dead. So it was a stupid dragon - survive the first breath weapon and then you could kill it. Again, a trap and not a real encounter.

Well, that presumes a group has good ranged attacks...and the Blue Tyger Legion is much more focused on melee. Had they done enough damage, Gottrod would have retreated in quick order...but the chance never really arose. By the time he wanted to escape, the party had rallied and down he went. I'd have to go back and check the dungeon version to see what else might have been changed, but I thought this was the case in the original version, as well. We'll see.

I'm not 100% sure about a reduction in HP as worth a reduction in CR, but we pulled it out.

A reduction in EL, not CR. And yes, there was a difference....about one round's worth, which may have been the difference between life and death for someone.

The third was "The Module That Must Not Be Named". It was so bad that we ret-conned it out of the Story Hour and all agreed it never happened.

You're also not allowed to mention...."The Scottish Play". Are we clear?

 

[LordVyreth]

Yeah, when I first heard you guys were doing this story hour, this was the adventure that made me nervous. It seemed to trip up other games in other Story Hours, including one who handled "the Module," albeit a 3.0 version thereof. That being said, I trust Wizardru to handle things appropriately, though I'd be happy to offer any suggestions if he needs them. Of course, I never ran this module, since I only use my own adventures in general, and I just have the Dungeon version, not the hard copy, but I'll do my best. Either way, I think you guys can pull through okay.