Sean's Campaign - Session #5
(Podcast will be late...technical issues & new TV season ya know.)
Woo woo, all aboard! Everyone get on the train!
After last week’s “lesson”, or debacle, depending on your point of view, I decided to push the PCs a little harder in the planned on direction.
Although I wouldn’t quite call it a plot train, it was more of a heavy handed DM intervention to pick up the pieces of the previous week and put the game back on the right track.
The players could still have ignored it all and done their own thing, which is fine for a while. It’s all part of trying to find a good balance between allowing the players the freedom to develop their characters and goals, and giving the DM something to work with to get his story or plan to work.
Pre-game stuff:
Everyone but Dale made it. Aaron played Artemis.
Allen’s new PC is a monk named Lindo.
Aaron’s new PC is a cleric named Moure (or Moore, More, or Moor).
No game next week. Enough people needed to skip, so we’re calling it off.
My critique of the game:
The ability to trip is a lot more powerful than I had thought. In the players’ hands or the DM’s hands it can totally change the direction of a combat.
And for whatever insane reason, I rolled more natural 1’s on d20s than should be allowed by the laws of probability. Rolling a natural 1 should happen no more than 5% of the time with a d20. Yet I was getting them 20% of the time. And I’m back to retiring dice when they roll 1s, so I retired a good 20 d20s during this session.
Game Synopsis:
We started with the party returning to Endrin with sorrow at the loss of their friends Caspar & Ian.
The first thing they did was to sell their three remaining horses. The horses seemed to be too much of a liability (being monster chow and all), and the price for selling horses was at a premium.
Next they went to the Roaring Bull Inn, to both drown their sorrows and figure out a plan to find others who might want to join them on their adventures.
Bull was quite sad to hear of the loss of the two men, but understood that these things happen.
He allowed Artemis to tell the glory of their story to the audience at the inn, but no one was interested in joining up with the group as the audience was not the adventurous type.
The next item on the party’s list would be to post fliers throughout the town.
That got only one hit, and that was from a city guard with a message; the group now calling themselves “Caspar’s Brightblades” presence was “requested” by the king.
Note: Read “requested” as “All aboard!”
The king was looking for groups of brave souls to do what he could not afford to do with the city guards; rid the surrounding country side of danger.
So he and his advisors were in the process of setting up organized groups of individuals to do so. They would take the individuals and group them together for various tasks.
And that is how our group got their two newest members; Lindo & Moure.
The (railroaded) task they were given would be to clear the northern road to make contact with the city of Krendalar. Wizards had been able to make contact with wizards in other large cities, but if no wizard was present in a city, no communication would occur and the status of the city itself was unknown beyond refugees who were no longer coming.
What the party would be given is small but significant enough to them; they would be allowed to consign the creation of minor (+1) magic armor and weapons and possibly have the enhancements increased if they party supplied the appropriate gems.
So the newest incarnation of Caspar’s Brightblades set off the next morning.
(I don’t remember why they chose that name, by the way.)
They began their trek along the northern road and the first thing to happen was a bad omen of things to come; rain. Not a thunderstorm, just a gloomy downpour that seemed to repeat itself off and on for the next week of encounter-less travel.
That is until they came across the bodies of a couple of travelers, who were being picked apart by a couple of giant vultures. When the vultures noticed the PCs, they gave a warning shriek. The party responded with a half-dozen arrows. The vultures flew away.
But it was really a trap.
The Brightblades went about checking out the bodies, and while doing so a dozen worg-riding goblins charged from just outside the party’s sight (using a single scout that was hiding a short distance away).
And you would think an experienced DM like me would understand the power of a trip attack en-masse, but I have actually rarely used it. Well this night I learned that lesson.
Over the next few rounds the goblins closed and surrounded the party. The party put up an amazing fight, but the worgs’ tripping ability, even at a mere +3, just proved to be too much for them.
The combat rounds went something like “Ok PC, the worg bites you for 7 points of damage, make a trip check. Ok, the worg won so you’re now on the ground.” Then the PC would have to stand up and then face the attacks of opportunity from 3 worgs. This happened to every PC usually every other round.
But I realized that this TPK was my mistake, and although I gave the party a few breaks, there was no way out of the situation without making it obvious that I was doing a deus-ex-machina (or however it’s stated).
So after everyone was either dead or dying, the remaining goblins grabbed the bodies and took them to the goblins’ camp. Then the party woke up in Endrin.
They were told they had been saved by a passing group of guards, and brought back to the city and raised up.
So I basically raised them, with an XP hit, but otherwise left them intact. TPKs are no fun, especially when it’s mostly the DM’s fault.
Side Note: Princess Arianna received a full resurrection, for obvious reasons. It pays to be a king’s daughter. This means that someone in the royal house knows who she is.
Over the next week the party members recovered and were sent out for guard duty of the farmlands for a few more weeks, as the royalty had to make sure that they weren’t wasting resources on the party and their near-deaths was just the result of a bad day.
Once that was done and over with, the party set out again, on day 100.
This time it was only partly cloudy when they started.
Their first encounter started off pretty scarily, but after round 1 there was nothing to worry about.
A fiendish dire lion attacked them and pounced Moure, dealing 49 points of damage with 4 claw attacks and a bite attack. Then it was summarily slaughtered with a barrage of spells, arrows, and sword thrusts.
A few days later, in the middle of the night they were attacked by a pack of four ghouls and a creature called an overghast (large, spiky, entangling entrails, and other such fun). Although Aarasilia and Artemis were frozen in place by the ghouls, the party was able to get themselves together and did not become food.
They searched around for the lair of the ghouls (for treasure of course) and came upon a small cave with a dozen dread warriors, which ended up as a very one-sided battle.
Once that unpleasantness was over, plus a few more days travel, and party finally saw the walls of the city of Krendalar.
The Brightblades approached the western entrance of the small city cautiously. But nothing happened.
No sneak attacks, barrages from the sky, or spells from out of nowhere.
When they actually entered the city, it was utterly empty of life. The place was nothing more than a walled, over-sized ghost town.
The first thing they chose to investigate was the guard towers for the entrance. They found evidence of the guards defending themselves from the city’s inside, but like everywhere else they’ve been they found no bodies.
Their next option was to find a large and notable building.
The nearest such place was a gothic-style cathedral, which was still mostly undamaged.
The doors were neither locked nor barred. So they entered it slowly.
This gave the four gargoyles enough of an opportunity to sneak and get next to the party before combat began.
There were two normal gargoyles on the inside of the building, where Zelast, Moure, and Aarasilia were.
And there were two gargoyles with 5 levels of rogue outside the building, where Ari, Trebor, and Artemis were (we poofed out Lindo when Allen left early and took his character sheet with him).
It was a pretty nasty fight. The gargoyles on the inside prevented the group’s main melee people from helping the melee-fragile casters.
Gargoyles with rogue levels are just plain nasty. These would get to deal an extra 3d6 points of damage with every single hit if they qualified for sneak attack damage, and they get four attacks with a full attack. That adds up to a total of 14d6 + 2d4 + 4 damage if every attack hits (58 average damage).
Luckily for the party that much damage never occurred, but it could have.
It took at least three rounds for the party to successfully deal with the weaker gargoyles before they could get outside. And during that time Ari was knocked unconscious, and shortly later was joined by Artemis.
Eventually, once the party was able to regroup, all four gargoyles were put down. And many healing spells had to be used to get the party back in fighting shape.
And we stopped on that high note.
The odd thing was that the two gargoyles were much tougher than the wolves (by nearly 2 EL) but the mass of trips made a huge difference.
Next session – worgs and gargoyles unite!
Woo woo, all aboard! Everyone get on the train!
After last week’s “lesson”, or debacle, depending on your point of view, I decided to push the PCs a little harder in the planned on direction.
Although I wouldn’t quite call it a plot train, it was more of a heavy handed DM intervention to pick up the pieces of the previous week and put the game back on the right track.
The players could still have ignored it all and done their own thing, which is fine for a while. It’s all part of trying to find a good balance between allowing the players the freedom to develop their characters and goals, and giving the DM something to work with to get his story or plan to work.
Pre-game stuff:
Everyone but Dale made it. Aaron played Artemis.
Allen’s new PC is a monk named Lindo.
Aaron’s new PC is a cleric named Moure (or Moore, More, or Moor).
No game next week. Enough people needed to skip, so we’re calling it off.
My critique of the game:
The ability to trip is a lot more powerful than I had thought. In the players’ hands or the DM’s hands it can totally change the direction of a combat.
And for whatever insane reason, I rolled more natural 1’s on d20s than should be allowed by the laws of probability. Rolling a natural 1 should happen no more than 5% of the time with a d20. Yet I was getting them 20% of the time. And I’m back to retiring dice when they roll 1s, so I retired a good 20 d20s during this session.
Game Synopsis:
We started with the party returning to Endrin with sorrow at the loss of their friends Caspar & Ian.
The first thing they did was to sell their three remaining horses. The horses seemed to be too much of a liability (being monster chow and all), and the price for selling horses was at a premium.
Next they went to the Roaring Bull Inn, to both drown their sorrows and figure out a plan to find others who might want to join them on their adventures.
Bull was quite sad to hear of the loss of the two men, but understood that these things happen.
He allowed Artemis to tell the glory of their story to the audience at the inn, but no one was interested in joining up with the group as the audience was not the adventurous type.
The next item on the party’s list would be to post fliers throughout the town.
That got only one hit, and that was from a city guard with a message; the group now calling themselves “Caspar’s Brightblades” presence was “requested” by the king.
Note: Read “requested” as “All aboard!”
The king was looking for groups of brave souls to do what he could not afford to do with the city guards; rid the surrounding country side of danger.
So he and his advisors were in the process of setting up organized groups of individuals to do so. They would take the individuals and group them together for various tasks.
And that is how our group got their two newest members; Lindo & Moure.
The (railroaded) task they were given would be to clear the northern road to make contact with the city of Krendalar. Wizards had been able to make contact with wizards in other large cities, but if no wizard was present in a city, no communication would occur and the status of the city itself was unknown beyond refugees who were no longer coming.
What the party would be given is small but significant enough to them; they would be allowed to consign the creation of minor (+1) magic armor and weapons and possibly have the enhancements increased if they party supplied the appropriate gems.
So the newest incarnation of Caspar’s Brightblades set off the next morning.
(I don’t remember why they chose that name, by the way.)
They began their trek along the northern road and the first thing to happen was a bad omen of things to come; rain. Not a thunderstorm, just a gloomy downpour that seemed to repeat itself off and on for the next week of encounter-less travel.
That is until they came across the bodies of a couple of travelers, who were being picked apart by a couple of giant vultures. When the vultures noticed the PCs, they gave a warning shriek. The party responded with a half-dozen arrows. The vultures flew away.
But it was really a trap.
The Brightblades went about checking out the bodies, and while doing so a dozen worg-riding goblins charged from just outside the party’s sight (using a single scout that was hiding a short distance away).
And you would think an experienced DM like me would understand the power of a trip attack en-masse, but I have actually rarely used it. Well this night I learned that lesson.
Over the next few rounds the goblins closed and surrounded the party. The party put up an amazing fight, but the worgs’ tripping ability, even at a mere +3, just proved to be too much for them.
The combat rounds went something like “Ok PC, the worg bites you for 7 points of damage, make a trip check. Ok, the worg won so you’re now on the ground.” Then the PC would have to stand up and then face the attacks of opportunity from 3 worgs. This happened to every PC usually every other round.
But I realized that this TPK was my mistake, and although I gave the party a few breaks, there was no way out of the situation without making it obvious that I was doing a deus-ex-machina (or however it’s stated).
So after everyone was either dead or dying, the remaining goblins grabbed the bodies and took them to the goblins’ camp. Then the party woke up in Endrin.
They were told they had been saved by a passing group of guards, and brought back to the city and raised up.
So I basically raised them, with an XP hit, but otherwise left them intact. TPKs are no fun, especially when it’s mostly the DM’s fault.
Side Note: Princess Arianna received a full resurrection, for obvious reasons. It pays to be a king’s daughter. This means that someone in the royal house knows who she is.
Over the next week the party members recovered and were sent out for guard duty of the farmlands for a few more weeks, as the royalty had to make sure that they weren’t wasting resources on the party and their near-deaths was just the result of a bad day.
Once that was done and over with, the party set out again, on day 100.
This time it was only partly cloudy when they started.
Their first encounter started off pretty scarily, but after round 1 there was nothing to worry about.
A fiendish dire lion attacked them and pounced Moure, dealing 49 points of damage with 4 claw attacks and a bite attack. Then it was summarily slaughtered with a barrage of spells, arrows, and sword thrusts.
A few days later, in the middle of the night they were attacked by a pack of four ghouls and a creature called an overghast (large, spiky, entangling entrails, and other such fun). Although Aarasilia and Artemis were frozen in place by the ghouls, the party was able to get themselves together and did not become food.
They searched around for the lair of the ghouls (for treasure of course) and came upon a small cave with a dozen dread warriors, which ended up as a very one-sided battle.
Once that unpleasantness was over, plus a few more days travel, and party finally saw the walls of the city of Krendalar.
The Brightblades approached the western entrance of the small city cautiously. But nothing happened.
No sneak attacks, barrages from the sky, or spells from out of nowhere.
When they actually entered the city, it was utterly empty of life. The place was nothing more than a walled, over-sized ghost town.
The first thing they chose to investigate was the guard towers for the entrance. They found evidence of the guards defending themselves from the city’s inside, but like everywhere else they’ve been they found no bodies.
Their next option was to find a large and notable building.
The nearest such place was a gothic-style cathedral, which was still mostly undamaged.
The doors were neither locked nor barred. So they entered it slowly.
This gave the four gargoyles enough of an opportunity to sneak and get next to the party before combat began.
There were two normal gargoyles on the inside of the building, where Zelast, Moure, and Aarasilia were.
And there were two gargoyles with 5 levels of rogue outside the building, where Ari, Trebor, and Artemis were (we poofed out Lindo when Allen left early and took his character sheet with him).
It was a pretty nasty fight. The gargoyles on the inside prevented the group’s main melee people from helping the melee-fragile casters.
Gargoyles with rogue levels are just plain nasty. These would get to deal an extra 3d6 points of damage with every single hit if they qualified for sneak attack damage, and they get four attacks with a full attack. That adds up to a total of 14d6 + 2d4 + 4 damage if every attack hits (58 average damage).
Luckily for the party that much damage never occurred, but it could have.
It took at least three rounds for the party to successfully deal with the weaker gargoyles before they could get outside. And during that time Ari was knocked unconscious, and shortly later was joined by Artemis.
Eventually, once the party was able to regroup, all four gargoyles were put down. And many healing spells had to be used to get the party back in fighting shape.
And we stopped on that high note.
The odd thing was that the two gargoyles were much tougher than the wolves (by nearly 2 EL) but the mass of trips made a huge difference.
Next session – worgs and gargoyles unite!
posted by BlueBlackRed at 8:21 PM
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