Sean's Campaign - Session #4
New Weird Al video
This session didn’t go anywhere near to where I had planned.
The group didn’t follow the plot hooks, but I was prepared.
Secrets of the PCs’ backgrounds got out a little sooner than expected, but that was ok. It gives me some more plot options.
The game session itself was pretty good up until the last hour of it.
Pre-game stuff:
Justin is back!
His schedule has calmed down and can get Fridays off again.
Mike is out.
His schedule has done the opposite. He’s been quite busy with work recently so he has to give up his Friday gaming for a while.
Dale was able to join us this week thanks to bad weather ruining his original family plans.
Next week we are playing, but the following week has several people unable to play so we’re skipping that week.
As for my own critique of my own game I need to do one thing; make a list of names to have them ready on the spot.
Example:
Last week the party was seeking someone to make them a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. But by intent and design, no one is freely available to do such a thing openly.
So with a little bit of role-playing, the party was directed to see three men known as Daryl, Larry, & Larry.
Yep, those are the names I came up with on the spot. And yes, I know it’s supposed to be Larry, Daryl, & Daryl, but I had to make at least a tiny change.
But anyway, on to the quick synopsis:
The party spent a few days doing their normal outside of the game stuff plus a few other things.
Thanks to the loss of a horse during their previous expedition, the party needed a replacement. But they were in for a bad surprise; the price of horses was now triple thanks to their lesser numbers. Additionally the remaining horses for sale were in very sad shape. Had Ian not rolled a natural 20 for his handle animal skill check, they’d had gotten a very bad horse. But instead he found one that had been a little sickly, but was getting over it. So instead of a horse with 50% of its hit points, they found a standard one.
They also went to see Daryl, Larry & Larry about some healing wands. They were told to bring them 2 normal pearls (100gp versions) and 750gp and they’ll make them a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. And if they brought back a weird and exotic head they knock 100gp off the price. Daryl also told them that if they found any large pearls he’d pay them a premium price.
When the party asked where they could find pearls, Daryl told them “good luck”. All of the pearl farms were either gone or watery death traps.
So the party decided to do search along the coastline to gather pearls.
But before that Artemis had something to take care of.
Artemis had something he had been tasked to do long before “it” (the apocalypse) occurred. So he went to the Talonar Arms Trading Company to see if he could get shipments of their weapons sent to the elves of Maratheelia. Their response was that they won’t even consider it until the trade roads to the north are safe and clear.
But prior to him entering the Talonar Arms Trading Company, he saw the manager of the place shooing a couple of halflings out of the place.
And wouldn’t you know it; those very same halflings were at the Roaring Bull Inn when Artemis returned. And since “PC” was stamped on the head of one of the halflings, the party asked them to join for a round or two of drinks. And of course both halflings accepted when the party offered to let them tag along.
So Trebor (Justin) and Recin (NPC) joined the group.
A few other things of note happened during this drinking evening.
The first caused Aarasilia to leave. Both Artemis, a half-elf warmage, and Zelast, an elf dusk blade, discussed where they came from and how they came to be here. Artemis had been sent to Endrin by his military commanders to establish contact with the Talonar Arms Trading Company to have weapons shipped to the elves. But the job was expected to be a failure and designed that way. Artemis’s existence as a half-elf was offensive to one particular elf noble name Jothillian. Zelast had also had dealings with Jothillian and his gang of noble thugs. They had attempted to accost Aarasilia but Zelast had to stop them. As a result they both fled to Endrin.
The second was that Recin seemed to stare at Ari. When she asked him about it, he said that she looked familiar, but couldn’t remember where from.
And none-the-less, the party was off to some more adventuring the next morning.
And it didn’t take long for that to happen. A group of 7 highwaymen ordered the party to stop and hand over Ari. When questioned the leader of the highwaymen, a woman ironically, stated that there was a reward for her to be brought in alive for a value of 100,000gp. It didn’t take long for talks to break down and fighting to begin.
A few rounds later and the party took care of the situation and captured one of the potential kidnappers.
He was just a hired mercenary though. He didn’t know anything other than her was being offered 1000gp to aid in the kidnapping of some girl. And since he was starving and couldn’t get a job, he had no choice.
The party believed him and took pity on him (although both halflings were a bit bloodthirsty about it). So later when the party returned to town, they handed him over to Bull for some unofficial rehabilitation and got him a job.
But before all that happened, Ari had to come clean. She told the party that she had stolen an amulet that would hide her identity from a wizard named Vernal. And ironically that amulet had been stolen from her just a day before the apocalypse hit. But something still didn’t add up to Ian so he kept pressing her for more information until she finally confessed. Her name was Arianna, princess and daughter of the king of Siglund. Her father had been overprotective of her so she stole the amulet to get some freedom.
Given that information, they knew they couldn’t turn their captive in to the authorities or he’d let everyone know.
And through something that is pure coincidence, the highwaymen happed to have 4 white pearls on them. So now the party has two brand new Wands of Cure Light Wounds.
Now the party had to decide what to do next. They ignored my plot hook and decided to hunt for more pearls. When this brought them to a large stone bridge, I let them know that they had heard many stories about the dangers that lie across that bridge. But they felt they could handle what was thrown at them.
So they crossed the bridge.
A couple of days later they encountered a group of creatures they had defeated before; feral demons.
I like the feral demons, but after this relatively boring combat, I think I won’t be using them again anytime soon.
But their special ability looks great on paper. A group of feral demons share the same soul that is split among several bodies. So whenever one feral is slain the rest get stronger; they get +1 AC, +1 BAB, +2 to their strength, and so on.
So the first couple of them dropped pretty quickly and easily, and they got progressively tougher. But by the end it was just predictable and the impact of these things getting stronger was not all that interesting.
The one thing that was interesting was that the last couple of the standing feral demons let out their fear howl and caused half the party to flee.
Now since I had overestimated the power of the feral demons, I knew I had to throw something at the party to get the point across to them that they were in a very dangerous area.
So as Artemis returned from fleeing from the fear effect, he was being chased back to the party by four huge ankhegs, hot on his heals.
So we were immediately back to initiative.
The party didn’t realize how deadly these particular ankhegs were until it was too late.
Caspar, the brave knight, charged at the line of ankhegs. But in the process of doing negligible damage he lost his light warhorse (Rupert) and his own life.
Ian, being another frontline fighter (a fighter/rogue) also was taken down in the process of stopping the onslaught.
The fourth huge ankheg caused the horses holding the party’s carriage to bolt. In the process they ruined the carriage and didn’t get very far. That made it easy for the last ankheg to get its meal.
After each ankheg had their meal safely in their mouth, they immediately burrowed into the ground to safely eat and digest their meals.
This utterly ruined everyone’s mood. They had lost their carriage, two horses, and two members.
Also, Recin ran off during the fight and didn’t return.
As a DM being nice thing, I let the party return to town with no chances of encounters.
And since the two dead warriors died not from doing something dumb, but from doing their duty/job I won’t be penalizing the players with their new PCs. They’ll get their new PC with the same amount of XP and money as they had when they died.
Now if you’re thinking I’m just a cruel DM who likes to give the party things and then take them away, you’re quite wrong.
I let the party do what they wanted. And they wanted to cross that bridge even after I had warned them in this session and a previous one how dangerous it would be. I certainly couldn’t throw little puff ball monsters at them so I had to show them how serious this area was.
I think what I threw at them was just perfect to get the point across; creatures that would attack the party and leave after they got what they wanted.
And if the party had about 4 more levels, this combat would have had an entirely different ending.
This session didn’t go anywhere near to where I had planned.
The group didn’t follow the plot hooks, but I was prepared.
Secrets of the PCs’ backgrounds got out a little sooner than expected, but that was ok. It gives me some more plot options.
The game session itself was pretty good up until the last hour of it.
Pre-game stuff:
Justin is back!
His schedule has calmed down and can get Fridays off again.
Mike is out.
His schedule has done the opposite. He’s been quite busy with work recently so he has to give up his Friday gaming for a while.
Dale was able to join us this week thanks to bad weather ruining his original family plans.
Next week we are playing, but the following week has several people unable to play so we’re skipping that week.
As for my own critique of my own game I need to do one thing; make a list of names to have them ready on the spot.
Example:
Last week the party was seeking someone to make them a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. But by intent and design, no one is freely available to do such a thing openly.
So with a little bit of role-playing, the party was directed to see three men known as Daryl, Larry, & Larry.
Yep, those are the names I came up with on the spot. And yes, I know it’s supposed to be Larry, Daryl, & Daryl, but I had to make at least a tiny change.
But anyway, on to the quick synopsis:
The party spent a few days doing their normal outside of the game stuff plus a few other things.
Thanks to the loss of a horse during their previous expedition, the party needed a replacement. But they were in for a bad surprise; the price of horses was now triple thanks to their lesser numbers. Additionally the remaining horses for sale were in very sad shape. Had Ian not rolled a natural 20 for his handle animal skill check, they’d had gotten a very bad horse. But instead he found one that had been a little sickly, but was getting over it. So instead of a horse with 50% of its hit points, they found a standard one.
They also went to see Daryl, Larry & Larry about some healing wands. They were told to bring them 2 normal pearls (100gp versions) and 750gp and they’ll make them a Wand of Cure Light Wounds. And if they brought back a weird and exotic head they knock 100gp off the price. Daryl also told them that if they found any large pearls he’d pay them a premium price.
When the party asked where they could find pearls, Daryl told them “good luck”. All of the pearl farms were either gone or watery death traps.
So the party decided to do search along the coastline to gather pearls.
But before that Artemis had something to take care of.
Artemis had something he had been tasked to do long before “it” (the apocalypse) occurred. So he went to the Talonar Arms Trading Company to see if he could get shipments of their weapons sent to the elves of Maratheelia. Their response was that they won’t even consider it until the trade roads to the north are safe and clear.
But prior to him entering the Talonar Arms Trading Company, he saw the manager of the place shooing a couple of halflings out of the place.
And wouldn’t you know it; those very same halflings were at the Roaring Bull Inn when Artemis returned. And since “PC” was stamped on the head of one of the halflings, the party asked them to join for a round or two of drinks. And of course both halflings accepted when the party offered to let them tag along.
So Trebor (Justin) and Recin (NPC) joined the group.
A few other things of note happened during this drinking evening.
The first caused Aarasilia to leave. Both Artemis, a half-elf warmage, and Zelast, an elf dusk blade, discussed where they came from and how they came to be here. Artemis had been sent to Endrin by his military commanders to establish contact with the Talonar Arms Trading Company to have weapons shipped to the elves. But the job was expected to be a failure and designed that way. Artemis’s existence as a half-elf was offensive to one particular elf noble name Jothillian. Zelast had also had dealings with Jothillian and his gang of noble thugs. They had attempted to accost Aarasilia but Zelast had to stop them. As a result they both fled to Endrin.
The second was that Recin seemed to stare at Ari. When she asked him about it, he said that she looked familiar, but couldn’t remember where from.
And none-the-less, the party was off to some more adventuring the next morning.
And it didn’t take long for that to happen. A group of 7 highwaymen ordered the party to stop and hand over Ari. When questioned the leader of the highwaymen, a woman ironically, stated that there was a reward for her to be brought in alive for a value of 100,000gp. It didn’t take long for talks to break down and fighting to begin.
A few rounds later and the party took care of the situation and captured one of the potential kidnappers.
He was just a hired mercenary though. He didn’t know anything other than her was being offered 1000gp to aid in the kidnapping of some girl. And since he was starving and couldn’t get a job, he had no choice.
The party believed him and took pity on him (although both halflings were a bit bloodthirsty about it). So later when the party returned to town, they handed him over to Bull for some unofficial rehabilitation and got him a job.
But before all that happened, Ari had to come clean. She told the party that she had stolen an amulet that would hide her identity from a wizard named Vernal. And ironically that amulet had been stolen from her just a day before the apocalypse hit. But something still didn’t add up to Ian so he kept pressing her for more information until she finally confessed. Her name was Arianna, princess and daughter of the king of Siglund. Her father had been overprotective of her so she stole the amulet to get some freedom.
Given that information, they knew they couldn’t turn their captive in to the authorities or he’d let everyone know.
And through something that is pure coincidence, the highwaymen happed to have 4 white pearls on them. So now the party has two brand new Wands of Cure Light Wounds.
Now the party had to decide what to do next. They ignored my plot hook and decided to hunt for more pearls. When this brought them to a large stone bridge, I let them know that they had heard many stories about the dangers that lie across that bridge. But they felt they could handle what was thrown at them.
So they crossed the bridge.
A couple of days later they encountered a group of creatures they had defeated before; feral demons.
I like the feral demons, but after this relatively boring combat, I think I won’t be using them again anytime soon.
But their special ability looks great on paper. A group of feral demons share the same soul that is split among several bodies. So whenever one feral is slain the rest get stronger; they get +1 AC, +1 BAB, +2 to their strength, and so on.
So the first couple of them dropped pretty quickly and easily, and they got progressively tougher. But by the end it was just predictable and the impact of these things getting stronger was not all that interesting.
The one thing that was interesting was that the last couple of the standing feral demons let out their fear howl and caused half the party to flee.
Now since I had overestimated the power of the feral demons, I knew I had to throw something at the party to get the point across to them that they were in a very dangerous area.
So as Artemis returned from fleeing from the fear effect, he was being chased back to the party by four huge ankhegs, hot on his heals.
So we were immediately back to initiative.
The party didn’t realize how deadly these particular ankhegs were until it was too late.
Caspar, the brave knight, charged at the line of ankhegs. But in the process of doing negligible damage he lost his light warhorse (Rupert) and his own life.
Ian, being another frontline fighter (a fighter/rogue) also was taken down in the process of stopping the onslaught.
The fourth huge ankheg caused the horses holding the party’s carriage to bolt. In the process they ruined the carriage and didn’t get very far. That made it easy for the last ankheg to get its meal.
After each ankheg had their meal safely in their mouth, they immediately burrowed into the ground to safely eat and digest their meals.
This utterly ruined everyone’s mood. They had lost their carriage, two horses, and two members.
Also, Recin ran off during the fight and didn’t return.
As a DM being nice thing, I let the party return to town with no chances of encounters.
And since the two dead warriors died not from doing something dumb, but from doing their duty/job I won’t be penalizing the players with their new PCs. They’ll get their new PC with the same amount of XP and money as they had when they died.
Now if you’re thinking I’m just a cruel DM who likes to give the party things and then take them away, you’re quite wrong.
I let the party do what they wanted. And they wanted to cross that bridge even after I had warned them in this session and a previous one how dangerous it would be. I certainly couldn’t throw little puff ball monsters at them so I had to show them how serious this area was.
I think what I threw at them was just perfect to get the point across; creatures that would attack the party and leave after they got what they wanted.
And if the party had about 4 more levels, this combat would have had an entirely different ending.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 6:52 PM
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