KotS #2 (a.k.a. 4E #3)

Well my opinion of the speed of 4E combat is that it is faster if, and only if, everyone is totally prepared at the table. I don’t mean just the DM.

If a player doesn’t know their PC very well, or 2 PC’s in our case, then the game slows down.

I would much rather have 5 players at the table consistently than have to play 2 PC’s.

In fact, we’re looking in to getting more players right now. I hope that works. I’m hearing that finding gamers is kind of hard right now, unless you’re willing to accept cat-piss men into your games.

I enjoy playing my two PC’s; so long as I’m prepared, and I am for the moment.

This session we jumped right into a combat.

We had found the lair of the kobolds that had been raiding the King’s Road.

It was another D&D Miniatures map, whose name eludes me, but it is one half forested and one half caves, with a waterfall.

This 15 minute encounter involved the forested half and almost a dozen kobolds, 8 minions, a slinger, a skirmisher, and a dragonshield.

We maintained our tactical formation pretty well.
Our front line did a good job of tearing through the kobold front line, while our back line took out groups of minions or went after particular targets.

Unfortunately a very hurt dragonshield kobold shouted out to a skirmisher “Irontooth must be warned!”

The skirmisher promptly ran into the waterfall, giving the kobolds and Irontooth 3 full rounds to prepare for our arrival.

After we handily sent those kobolds to Kurtulmak (the kobold deity), we regrouped and moved into the waterfall without resting.

Some notes for this night:
Note #1:
Aaron can’t roll worth a damn. I think that’s why he plays clerics more than most other classes; he doesn’t get into combat much.
We used to have a term for a member from long ago, Craig. Craig couldn’t roll worth a damn either, and the term “Craiging the roll” was created to account for his amazing ability to roll horribly.
After he moved to other side of the country, we changed it to “Dale-ing the roll.”
We might have to transfer that title to Aaron. As for this session he rolled double digits less about 25% of his roll d20 rolls.
In fact had he not rolled so poorly, we probably could have shaved 20 minutes off this next 100 minute long fight.

Note #2:
I goofed royally by telling Dale that monsters can heal.
The actual rule is that monsters have healing surges, but no way to implement them in combat as they usually don’t have any Second Wind abilities.
This made the next combat last a bit longer as well.

Note #3:
Justin really hates playing wizards in 4E.
Since everything requires a to-hit roll with spells, even Magic Missile, spells are not usually a guarantee to do anything.
Even worse, when a spell does half damage on a miss, minions don’t die because “minions don’t die on a missed attack”.
And what truly ticks him off is that the only attack bonuses you get to attack with wizard spells are half your level and your intelligence modifier. Which for Justin’s wizard is +4 total right now.
He said more than once that he “Frkn hates wizards” and “Just kill him”, meaning he wouldn’t mind if his wizard died.

Note: #4
The reason we’ve been getting surprised by kobolds was because Dale totally misunderstood how Passive Perception works. He was making rolls for Faerel’s perception and rolled low, therefore we were surprised.
How different would those fights have been last week had it been done correctly?

Back to the game…

Behind the waterfall we were met by a horde of kobolds (12 minions, 4 skirmishers, and 2 dragonshields protecting a wyrmpriest) and a goblin (Irontooth – a barbarian type with over 100hp).

The first few rounds of combat were decent. Berlin, Justin’s hated wizard, used an action point to clear out 2/3 of the minions and hurt some others with dual Clouds of Daggers. It also forced other combatants down a couple small rows of open squares funneling them to us.

But after that things got worse.
Justin forgot that fighters are meant to stay put and protect the back line. So Stout wandered off to solo a skirmisher and the two dragonshields.
Aaron saw a good opportunity for backstabbing, so he had Valenae orbit around Stout’s opponents.
When those two got in over their heads, my warlord, Tornok had to go help them with some healing.

That unfortunately left Berlin and our two strikers, Faerel (bow-ranger) and Starlock (a starlock), totally open to attack from the remaining minions, 3 skirmishers and Irontooth.

Faerel did have a shining moment that kind of showed him as a level 1 Legolas. He used his daily power, Split the Tree, to shoot at Irontooth and a skirmisher.
He critted with it, dealing 26 damage to both, killing the skirmisher outright.

In spite of how bad our tactics were, we still had plenty of fight in us.
Justin consistently rolled max damage on his attacks and eventually wore the dragonshields down.
Our three back liners, Faerel, Starlock, and Berlin were able to shift or feystep away from combat. Starlock’s curses kept Irontooth away from Faerel and herself.

But the wizard was not as fortunate as a raging Irontooth knock Berlin to negatives.
Tornok was able to get Berlin back up, but it cost Tornok his positive hit points.

The end had come for Irontooth though. After all but the wyrmpriest were dropped we surrounded him and finished him off.

When Irontooth finally dropped he yelled out “Kalarel and Lord Orcus, prepare my way!”

Great, Superman is helping Orcus. (I thought it was funny.)

When it was finally over we healed up (including Tornok) and were exhausted.

Almost all of our daily and encounter abilities had been used, and when rested almost everyone had used half their healing surges.

We did the standard looting, finding some nice things and a note mentioning something about a spy in Winterhaven and those townspeople soon being food for those in the rift.

When done scouring the area for treasure, we returned to Winterhaven to find a subdued town of people who felt as if “someone had walked on my grave”.

We talked to Lord Padrag (or whatever his name is) and got our reward.
He told us that we might want to check into some keep nearby, the same one we had heard about goblins making their home.
We told him about the spy, and he promised swift and final action if he had real proof of who it was.

For the rest of the day we did some information gathering in the marketplace and the inn.

We found out that the keep holds within in it a rift to the Shadowfell realm. And if it is reopened, this village is doomed.
We also know where the keep is now.

We found out where Stout’s mentor was last seen going to, some “big dig” about 2 miles away.

And finally we think we know who the spy is, but have no proof; some jerk of an elven “noble” woman who doesn’t do anything except hang out at the inn, named Ninnarin.
Valenae searched her room for any proof, but found none. So we put that side quest on the backburner.

After resting, the next morning we headed out to the location of the archaeological dig to find Stout’s mentor.
We found a crater-like area (DDM map – Dragondown Grotto), and bunch of people working on it. An excited gnome was telling us all about it and wanted to show us more about it.

It was an obvious to us trap, but our PC’s didn’t notice thanks to poor rolling.
When they sprang the trap, we were only put on the defensive for a round or two.
It didn’t take long for the gnome to run away invisibly and later appear and put a dagger to Dalthryn’s (Stout’s mentor) throat.
We agreed to leave him alone to do all the digging he wanted and we’d be on our way.
Surprisingly he agreed, and we were soon heading back to town with Dalthryn.

Back in town we helped Dalthryn and rested with the intent of heading off the next morning to the Keep on the Shadowfell.

We’re not sure how next week is going to work as it may only be Aaron, Dale, and myself.