The Valley #3

(Quick note - I've not proofread this...not that it'd be noticeable from my proofread ones.)

Divine Power is broken. Well maybe.

If you’re a healing cleric this book is for you.
There’s an at-will attack (Astral Light sounds right) that requires you to hit a target’s Reflex. If you hit, that target is -2 to his defenses, and the next ally that hits it gets healed for 2 + your charisma bonus + and your wisdom because it has a healing tag.
I immediately nerfed away the charisma bonus, but after thought says to add it back in since it doesn’t scale much with level.

We also dumped the paladin’s marking ability and changed it to match it to how I see a paladin should defend while not copying the marking abilities of any other classes, though maybe we borrowed some concepts.

It’s now an at-will power as a minor action that pulls the target your Charisma modifier to you and marks the target. The mark remains so long as it is adjacent to you at the end of your turn.
And yes, you can use this on an already marked target multiple times, but it’s limited to a range of 5 (burst 5). And so long as you stay adjacent to your targets, you can have more than one target marked.

It’s not 100% fleshed out, but I think it works, and it’s most certainly better than the current setup for Divine Challenge.

And although previously we never had an issue with it, tonight we had a lot of time lost thanks to powers that gave “-2 to attack until…”.
Our second combat for the night probably took 5 minutes longer thanks to me having to constantly ask what penalties I had to attack, and who.

Worse, there’s no way to fix it without totally unbalancing the game.
I can’t remove or limit those effects; too many abilities use them.

I remember saying long ago that those effects would kill combat speed.
For the past year I thought I was wrong about that, but now it’s obvious we just didn’t encounter the worst of it.

For now I’ll do nothing about it to see if it’s an isolated instance or maybe we’ll think of a better way to deal with them.

As for my campaign, it’s going very well and the players seem to like it.

Focusing on 1-2 PC’s per session, while not perfect, is going well. And the personal quests are a definite improvement to the game and work amazingly well to promote role-playing.

Now our session had less XP compared to the last two.
I’m wondering if there’s a coincidence between that and longer combats because there we no minions this time around.

Our cast:
Admon (Scott); level 2 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 2 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 2 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan (Mike); level 2 Silverhome dwarven rogue

Because we had to quickly end the previous session, we backtracked a little bit to get some role-playing in for Duncan.

First we found out that he didn’t have Goblin as a language (an oops with the rules), so he had to talk to his superiors at the temple of Moradin to get a copy or three of them.

(I also had him roll a check from last session to determine if he understood that the formula he found was indeed a formula.)

He was able to get 1 copy in Dwarvish for him and his church leader and one in common for Mayor Ryan. His reasoning was that it was best to have 2 separate groups with the recipe.

Next we jumped to Duncan handing the copies to the mayor. He was not happy that someone else had a copy of the formula, but he conceded that it was best to have another copy of the formula in their hands just in case.

He went on to say that he knew the party would work well together and he was glad that he could trust Duncan, but he stressed that if he needed something kept secret, it had to remain secret.

Next he mentioned something about a party the following week that might have a lot of people in it that Duncan may want to get to know on a political level.

He then handed Duncan something that was found a while ago that he had forgotten about until recently, but he thought that Duncan would be able to put it to good use: a holy symbol of Moradin +2.

Next we jumped to Admon.

He was walking home when a giddy red-haired woman in her mid-20’s named Muriel and her bodyguard (Harold, a man in full platemail) stopped Admon and asked if he was Admon.

She was looking for a wizard that could help her with a ritual, and that his name came up several times but the people at the School of Wizardry were giving her the runaround.

She said she’d pay him 100gp to help and that she’d like to do it tonight. It would be in a “fire cave”, and the ritual would be cast into an orb which would then be used to summon fire elementals. It had to be in that cave because the strange magicks of the Valley gave the “fire cave” its special features.

He wanted to get his friends to help, and she readily agreed. She said she would meet him at the Roaring Bull Inn and would be anxiously waiting to get this ritual done.

While that was going on Edward was imbuing his sword with a magical ritual that only paladins of Brekaneth know. He can take a magical weapon and move its enchant onto his sword, and the same with his armor.

And Kergan went about trying to make contact with the Thieves’ Guild. He heard nothing, as in not a thing when he would usually hear something.

Eventually they all wound up at the Roaring Bull Inn. Well a little more than that happened, but it’s all pretty mundane.

Bull, the owner of the inn, made friends with everyone in the party except Edward, who mistrusts him for not being a believer.

After some drinks and negotiation, it’s 6pm when the party leaves for the fire cave, with Muriel skipping happily along the way. The party had the feeling that Harold dealt with her antics on a daily basis.

Yeah, it’s a trap.
You know it.
I knew it.
And the party knew it.

I’ve really got to learn better ways to spring traps.

So she puts the orb on a small rock in the center of the cave, and has Admon stand on the opposite side of the side of the rock while the party chooses their own positions in the room.

Luckily for my trap they didn’t quite get that the 3 large rocks in the room were part of the trap and didn’t set up a defense for that.

Just as she was about to begin casting the supposed ritual, she shouts out “Now!” and the boulders spring to life as 3 magma claws.

Admon had the living daylights beaten out of him and could hardly get a spell off every other round. He was knocked out early in the combat until the party came to his rescue and kept him healed up.

Harold spent the first half of the combat guarding Muriel, but when Muriel shouted out “Kill him! Kill the Silverblade!” his attitude changed.

He shouted “Prove you’re a Silverblade, use your weapon.”

When Admon used his family’s longsword (he was pinned down and couldn’t cast a spell without being pounded with opportunity attacks) and hit with it, Harold switched sides and began attacking the magma claws (but never Muriel).

While the rest of the party was focusing on the magma claws, Kergan focuses on Muriel.

Edward said to capture her and not kill her and Kergan responded later with “I couldn’t hear you over the screams.”

To make a long story short, between this point and the rest of the night, Harold tells his story after pulling up his visor and Admon recognizes him as an old employee of his family’s business.

Prior to the fall of the Endarian Empire, the Silverblade family ran a company of bodyguards. For reasons unknown they failed and the empire fell. The Silverblades fled to the Valley and with the quick wit of Admon’s grandfather they were able to re-establish their business, albeit much smaller.

Ever since then they’ve believed that the Herollus family was at the root of the betrayal, but never had proof.

Harold, once a loyal hired sword in the Silverblade family’s business, had signed on to the Herollus family as a personal bodyguard after the Silverblades disappeared. Over the past eight years he has seen and heard snippets of information about what the Herollus’s have been doing; dealing with beings in the Shadowfell, dark magic (Admon suspects they may be behind the Zombie Elixir), and searching and destroying anything in their way.

He had not known what Muriel Herollus was up to specifically, but when he saw the family sword design of the Silverblades and the style in which Admon wielded it (though in the clumsy hands of a wizard) he knew he had found his previous, and decidedly less evil employers.

Of course if they sent one of their own to assassinate Admon, who or what would they send to go after the rest of the Silverblades?

Encounter #2, entitled “The Insurance Policy”, happened during this discussion.

It was past 8pm, so the sky was dark enough, plus the group missed their perception checks.

A dragon, either black or shadow when they finally saw what they could of it, landed in their path and asked them to hand over the Silverblade.

Negotiations didn’t make it too far after that.

And this combat took forever thanks to the number of “-2 to attacks” that hit the dragon, and the penalty wasn’t the same for everyone.

Other than that it was fun while the dragon taunted the party, especially the paladin.
Most of the taunts were about Edward’s church, but Edward, being the faithful paladin listened to none of them.

And worst of all, no treasure.
Where’s a flying dragon going to hide his hoard?

When they make it back to the city they immediately go to Admon’s family’s home to warn them and so on.

They wisely set up defenses within and around the house, with the party defending the hallway to the bedroom where mother, father, and grandfather or holing up.

When the attacker showed up the party was in bad shape immediately thanks to bad rolls, bad choices, and bad hits.

Their attacker: a shadow bat, a shadow hound, a dark creeper, and a shadowy goblin (notice a pattern?)

The fight was in tight quarters within the hallway and the party had a simple goal, do not let anyone into the bedroom.

And they didn’t, though they had the crap beat out of them defending it.

Admon now has a new quest – Destroy the Herollus family.

And that’s where we stopped.

Quests completed:
Admon: The Search [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Find information leading to the whereabouts of the Herollus family.]
Duncan: Secret [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Details are hidden. Telling the other players of this quest voids it.]

New Quests:
Admon: Vendetta [Level: Unknown. Reward: Unknown. Destroy the Herollus family.]

Next session should be all of us.

The Valley #2

Combat speed has increased dramatically these past couple of sessions.

This session even had 4 combat encounters and a skill challenge.

There is no one thing that I can attribute this to, but there are several things I believe that help; the players are honoring my request to avoid powers that kill the flow of combat or are giant time sinks, no fighter classes, many minions, letting other players play their own class, and the usual DM being prepared.

Just thinking about dragonborns makes me cringe with their combat-stalling breath attack.

If this speed can be maintained past level 5, I’ll consider my changes to the game for this campaign a victory against those who made 4E into a role-playing version of D&D Minis.

Last session both Kergan and Admon made it to level 2 (barely) after only one session. Dale was already level 2 due to back-story (but at 0XP to start with).

Knowing the gaming community how I know the gaming community, several people are going to say things like “You’ve given out way too much XP!”, or “You’re obviously a Monty Haul GM!”, or “This is yet more of proof of how poorly designed 4E is!”

Once again I’d like to say “Shut the smurf up.”

When’s the last time you had a game where people went from level 1 to the teen levels?
(Just one for me)
How many campaigns have you played where people made it past level 6 in less than 6 months?
(Hundreds for me)
Have you ever seen me just give things to the players without good reason?
(Never)

I made the players earn that XP, through combat, role-playing, and choosing the right skills.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again; I don’t care if the PC’s gain a level a session, but I guarantee that every bit of that XP will be earned.

Of course what constitutes “earning XP” could be debated.

Several blog entries back I mentioned that anyone who makes a substandard PC is “stealing XP” from everyone else who made a decent PC. I was called to task by this blog that this is just another example of MMO games influencing D&D, as this is a common ideal in MMO games – when one player is slacking so everyone else has to work harder to get anywhere, or even to not die.

The difference in MMO’s is that it’s a hell of lot easier to boot said slacker and replace them.

(That reminds that I need to update the links on this blog.)

My reasoning for the “stealing XP” comment is from my experience in that some people will choose to make a poor excuse for a PC or my personal favorite from 3E, making a PC that is crap until he hits a certain level at which point he “matures” and can then contribute to group. Some people might call that an “investment”, I call it theft of XP and gaming time.

One positive thing about 4E (so far) is that it’s kind of hard to make a totally pathetic PC, but it is quite possible to make time-wasting PC.

But hey, you all let me know your thoughts.

Now let’s talk about The Valley, Session 2.

Our cast:
Admon (Scott); level 2 human war wizard
Ander (Dale); level 2 halfling storm sorcerer
Duncan (Justin); level 1 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 1 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan (Mike); level 2 Silverhome dwarven rogue

We started the morning after last session, with the group being led into Mayor Xavius Ryan’s office by his clerk Lita.

The mayor greeted them all with enthusiasm, asked them how they were doing and other such pleasantries that politicians are all but required to do.

Duncan brought the mayor some Endarian Noble-wine, claiming that it was from his collection. It was totally untrue, but no one knew. And hey, if a 10gp bottle of wine helps your rise to power, it’s a small price.

It didn’t take long for the conversation to head to what special task he had for them.

Rushgar Hammersmith had asked the city council for help with the remnants of the Dead Dwarf Clan of goblins.

The dwarves had removed the goblins from Silverhome, but the goblins still raided occasionally. Recently the goblins had gone from a minor nuisance to an outright guerilla force that did hit-and-fade attacks on dwarven mining squads.

The city council denied the request for both money concerns and that since this occurring entirely underground; it would take too long to properly train non-dwarves to be competent.

So the mayor took it upon himself to take some money from his small discretionary fund to offer the party 5gp each to help Rushgar deal with the goblins. Of course the party accepted the task, and Duncan and Kergan declined any payment.

After the meeting was over Kergan asked to speak to him privately and the mayor asked to speak to Duncan privately.

Kergan offered his services to the mayor for any tasks that can’t be done through the more legal channels.
Xavius thanked him for his offer and requested that the next time that the guild had an internal dispute that they keep it out of the eyes of the public (see last session).

When that was finished the mayor privately talked with Duncan.

Xavius said that he saw some resemblances between the two of them (my actual words were “I see some of myself in you” – but you can imagine how that went over).

Mayor Ryan had another task for Duncan; to find a sample of fresh Zombie Elixir, and the formula for making it.
His logic – if that stuff made it into the drinking water then it would be disaster. But if he could get the formula to the proper people, then preventative measures could be taken to safeguard the city.
The only sticking point was that Duncan needed to do it discreetly, even from the rest of the group.

Of course Duncan agreed to help. If everyone knew about the stuff, the public panic could be uncontrollable.

By noon that day the entire party was within the main halls of Silverhome.

Compared to the scarred and strip-mined area that is the Ironmonger mines, Silverhome has become an icon of dwarven art and pride in their work.

There is artwork in the stone combines the stone’s natural colors mixed with silver for amazing grades of detail.

The artwork in the main hall shows the history of Silverhome from the first finding of the ore, through the creation of the Valley, the destruction of Silverhome, and finally the reclaiming of it.

They also meet Rushgar Hammersmith and the Hammer of Silverhome, a talking hammer (which has some prejudices against elves).

Rushgar tells them that this is a mission to exterminate the Dead Dwarf Clan once and for all and has the commander of the campaign, Kraven Thunderfist, explain the plans.

Over the next several days they’re looking to scout out where the central location of the goblin clan, then pen the goblins in, and corral them into one final fight where no goblins will come out alive.

The party, and several all-dwarf parties, start off simply scouting areas, then move on to actively pursuing goblins, lying traps and ambushes, and so on.

By the third day they notice more aggression from the goblins, possibly out of desperation.

Game-wise we do not run any of those fights. We instead fast forward to the fourth day.

They find that the goblins’ central home was an ancient temple to Moradin that the goblins had converted to a fortress.

To make it worse, the front gates could not be opened unless two sets puzzles were solved. Of course each puzzle area was protected.

The party’s job was to solve one of the puzzles while another force of dwarves did the same on the second “lock”, and a third force would directly assault the front gate to occupy the attentions of the goblins. When the gate was open the fourth and final group would charge into the temple and leave no goblin standing with everyone else becoming reserves, while the 2 lock groups would wait in reserve.

Encounter #1: Storming the East Wing
The party is forced to climb up a hill full of loose rocks (DC 25 athletics) or to travel along a series of switch-back trails while goblin archers shoot at them and melee goblins and terrain impede their travel.

This fight quickly turns in a ranged vs. ranged fight, as expected.
Edward leads the charge up the hill while the rest of the group picks off any goblins in the way, hopefully before Edward gets there.
Ander makes himself a target by taking out several goblins early, so both archers take him out by round 2. He almost stays down after he’s healed.
When they’re within range of the top, Ander uses Sorcerer’s Sirocco to fly Edward up the last bit of the hill. By then the only goblin remaining is an archer, and he surrenders immediately.

Encounter #2: Solving the Lock
At the top of the hill, behind the parapets the goblin archers hid behind is a diamond-shaped, octagonal stone with eight puzzles, one on each side.

We remain on the same initiative as before and this encounter begins at the end of the last one.
As a standard action a PC can try to figure out the puzzle of that side with a DC16 skill check depending on the side being faced (Arcana, History, Perception, and Religion – 2 of each) or a Thievery check could get any of them.
If a PC fails, they get a cumulative +1 per round for the next attempt, but it goes away if they leave that spot. Also, due to the small work area, aiding another PC does not help.

From the beginning of this encounter the party has 5 rounds to solve all 8 sides. If they do so, they get 625XP. If not, for each round after the fifth, the reward drops by 125XP (so 0XP by then tenth round).

Unfortunately, with the exception of Edward, it took everyone 3 rounds to make it to the platform. The party solves it on round 6.

The door opens and the party pulls on the wheel that opens their bit of the gate.

While some of the party listens to the combat raging through the facility (and hearing something about a witch doctor), the rest tend to the captured goblin for interrogation.
The goblin realizes that he’ll die no matter what so he picks on the Ander, who fries him in response.
Kergan: “Now you’re learning.”

While waiting in reserve, the party gets a short rest.

First the dwarven reserves are called in, but the goblins quickly intercept them, leaving only the party to take advantage of a chance to get at Grizshnak, the lead goblin. Kraven Thunderfist orders them to do so.

Encounter #3: The Throne Room
With this combat I felt that there should be utter chaos in the room, so I included a handful of glass beads that counted as combatants that were effectively semi-mobile walls. They were neither friend nor foe, they offered no flanking, took no attacks of opportunity, and were unaffected by powers. Every couple of rounds I’d pick a couple at random to move in a random direction 1 square, except for a few at the back of the room that blocked a rear escape for Grizshnak.

At the back of the room were 4 of the beads, at the end of every other round one of them would move out of the way. So by the end of round 6, Grizshnak would have an escape route. I did not tell the party this, but it didn’t matter.

Even though Grizshnak and his bodyguard were tough, they had no chance against the number of daily powers thrown at them.

The poor bodyguard (I named him Skankmasta 5000 to mess with Aaron who had to write that down on the initiative tracker and then say it every round) had the daylights beaten out of him. At one point he was blinded, poisoned, weakened, had -4 to attacks (not counting blinded), and was next to a Flaming Sphere and a Guardian of Faith.

When their leader died the rest of the goblins fell quickly.

Soon there were cheers of celebration and success ringing throughout the place.

Several odd bits of stolen loot were found, including a full crate of recently stolen black-bottle whiskey.

When the party were each offered bottles to join in toasts of celebration.

Foolish players; never trust a DM.

Encounter #4: The Fallen Rise

After the first toast everyone downed some of the whiskey, whiskey tainted with the Zombie Elixir.

Immediately everyone was doubled over in pain. Because they voluntarily drank it, the poison automatically hit and the damage was 5 points of poison damage a round, slowed, lose 1 healing surge a round, and weakened (save ends all). Oh yeah, since it was based in alcohol, dwarves don’t get their +5 to poison saves.

All my evil DM nastiness went to waste as everyone made their saves on the first round. But there was more going on.

From above more of the glowing elixir was pouring down the walls and flowing down the every so slightly slanted room (something I did mention to the party early on). All of the fallen dwarves and goblins rose as zombie rotters, and several dwarves succumbed to the poison becoming zombies themselves.

But once again my evil DM nastiness was thwarted.

The party was surrounded by zombies, as were the rest of the dwarves throughout the complex. But Admon rolled a 27 on initiative and was able to fry all but 3 of the zombie rotters and miraculously missed all of his allies with his Burning Hands spell. He then uses and action point to take out 2 of the 3 remaining rotters. Then Duncan turned undead and the fight was pretty much over.

During the whole of the 2 round battle everyone heard maniacal laughing coming from above.

Kraven told the party to get up there and stop whoever is causing this before it’s too late, as each dead zombie may re-rise, and each dead dwarf will re-rise.

The party rushes up stairs, not getting a chance to rest for the fifth combat.

Encounter #5: Growven, the Dark One

The party bursts open to the door to find several skeletal archers aiming at them, a pair of skeletons guarding and blocking the doorway, and Growven standing in a large “green room” with plants everywhere emitting the eerie green light that the goblin elixir has.

Growven, a pale-skinned goblin with black veins and an evil grin says, “Welcome to my playground.”

Apparently the party had used all of their karma in the previous encounters of the night because they started missing left and right giving me a lot of chances for Growven and his skeletal archers to freely attack the party.

Even though they do only 3 points of damage, when you get hit by 2-4 decrepit skeletons’ ranged attacks a round, it adds up fast.

Eventually the skeleton guards up front were taken out, then the rest of the skeletons and other aid Growven summoned were destroyed. That only left Growven and a vine horror he had held in reserve.

The party was drained of resources everywhere. They no healing, no encounter powers, no daily powers, and no magic item powers left but the party still won.

And when I say “won”, I mean with single digit hit points and a fear every round that the DM will crush them.

It was late so we fast-forwarded the ceremonies where Rushgar gives the PC’s each a medal (Star of Silverhome) and they return to the city after a stop at Crater Lake so Ander can get a sample of Mage-wort.

Among the loot gained, written in goblin was the formula for the Zombie Elixir. In the group, only Duncan can read the language. He pocketed it for his quest.

Quests completed:
Group: Goblin-solving [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Assist Silverhome in exterminating the Dead Dwarf goblin Clan.]
Duncan: Find the Elixir [Level: 2. Reward: 125XP, Holy Symbol of Moradin +2. Find a sample of and the exact recipe for the goblin’s Zombie Elixir.]
Ander: Reagents for Tarn [Level: 2. Reward: 125XP. Bring Sibylline Tarn a seal vial of goblin elixir and 2 mage-wort roots without destroying more than one in the process (DC16 Arcane or Nature)]

Quests added:
None

Next session: we have all but Dale.

The Valley #1

Ok, this session went damn near perfectly.

The only “eh” bits would be me reading from my script and the confusion the group had when what was happening didn’t at first appear to match what I was reading to them (that’s because it wasn’t).

This session the only one missing was Aaron. Unfortunately for the group, specifically Mike (Kergan), Aaron has the group’s only defender. But since I knew this ahead of time, I was able to set up the encounters with that in mind.

Each session I’m going to try to focus on the story and/or quest line of at least one PC, and then move on another PC the next session.

To get the ball rolling, this session focuses on Kergan, Mike’s rogue.

Part of Kergan’s history is that he was part of the Thieves’ Guild and had a special contract to aid his fellow dwarves in Silverhome by searching mines for goblin-laid traps before the miners would go through the less traveled sections of the mines.

Towards the end of that contract, Kergan and Marko (Kergan’s boss) began having some disputes. On the final day of his contract he almost missed a gas trap that could have killed the entire mining crew. This trap was too sophisticated for goblins so Kergan immediately suspected Marko.

There was also Ander (Dale’s PC), a halfling storm sorcerer who appeared in the Valley during a thunderstorm. His curiosity, heroic actions, and odd appearance (silver-tinged skin, silver eyes, and silver hair) have made him a celebrity of sorts.

Next is Admon Silverblade (Scott’s PC), a human war wizard whose family is known to be professional bodyguards. Admon has chosen to venture out on his own to determine his own fate and perhaps set up his own business.

And finally there’s Duncan, a Silverhome cleric of Moradin who has his eyes on political power and letting other people do the “dirty work”.

We started the session with the PC’s in a warehouse and not yet together as a team.

The warehouse had small force of goblins led by a hexer, some confused thieves (Marko, Kergan, Simon, Lee), several corpses, a halfling hiding in a crate he shared with a corpse, and suspicious dwarven cleric of Moradin.

Here’s the script I read to the players (more or less), and note that they not yet played their PC’s at all:

“Ander, if there was ever a time to act, it’s now. You push yourself out the side of the crate you’re in and stand up. Several faces suddenly turn to look at you with surprise. You take this opportunity to step back and prepare for a fight and shout ‘Goblins raising zombies! Even thieves can’t be so stupid!’
Suddenly your brain does the math, and you desperately hope you’re not wrong about that dwarf.”

“Duncan, you knew you needed an opportunity before you could act, and it appears that the brain-fried halfling has just given you one. You open the door they’d forgotten to lock and step into the room.”

“Admon, with a bit of desperation, you are finally able to cut the last of your bonds. Luckily for you the stupid creatures didn’t take your stuff. You slide off the wooden plank you were tied to and shake the pain out of your hands. Now it’s time to give some payback to the goblins.”

“Kergan, you knew you shouldn’t have done this, but this was your first chance to talk to Marko. Now you realize that you’re the fourth and Marko is delivering bodies to a goblin to be animated as zombies. You pull out your weapon, realizing that you’re surrounded by people who mean to kill you.”

And thus the combat began.

I had set up the initiative order for this first fight allow for story telling and to get the fight going in the direction I wanted it to.

During the first round, just before each PC acted I read this bit to them.

To Ander:
“Yeah, these guys have to be up to no good. You can clearly hear them talking about easy money. One of the three, obviously their boss says “Come on. It’s time to go get our fourth.”
Your curiosity has once again overridden your common sense as you sneak outside to check out the situation. By the time you get there the three men are gone, but the crates are there.
The one in the middle has a loose side panel, so you open that one. What you see scares you.
What scares you more is what you do when you hear voices coming back around the corner.”

(This is the part where I had to tell the group that this particular bit of narration happened previously that day.)

To Duncan:
“Something isn’t right. Those guards aren’t standing the way guards usually stand. And why aren’t they questioning four men pulling a cart down the street on a day like today?
You hate to leave when the mayor is giving a speech, but this needs some investigation.
You tail the four men casually from good distance back until they stop after hitting a bump in the road. Two of them hurriedly put the crates back with a panicked look while one looks pissed and another confused.
A few moments later they enter a warehouse. You decide to sneak around to the front door of the place, just to make sure. It’s probably something Moradin would want you to do.”

To Admon:
“Sometimes being a mage for hire from the city council isn’t worth the 5 gold you’re going to get paid for this; if you get paid for this.
Your job was simple, check out the blocks near the temple to make sure there were no surprises.
Unfortunately there was a surprise and it landed on you.
You checked out this warehouse, expecting to find routine materials. Instead you find some ‘witch doctor’ goblin directing other goblins to set up some kind of mad scientist’s lab.
Before you know it goblins are all over you although several of the bastards paid a permanent price. But next you’re tied up on a plank, with the witch doctor hovering over you saying ‘I wonder what will happen with a live target. Either way you’ll be dead.’ Then he laughs evilly.”

To Kergan:
“If Lee and Simon weren’t here, you could question Marko out in public. Even he wouldn’t be dumb enough to pull anything that stupid on a day like today. But so long as the “moron twins” are around, you can’t talk about guild business. That’s a guaranteed death, and probably by pudding.
So you quietly do as you’re told and pull these carts, full of illicit goods for sure.
Then one of the twins hits a rock in the road and the top crate falls to the side. The lid pops off revealing the dead body of an old human man dressed in rags.
With a question on your tongue Marko cuts you off and says ‘Medics are willing to pay large amounts of gold for cadavers. Each of us is going to make 10 gold for each of these three people who would otherwise be tossed to a pudding.’
When Lee and Marko are done putting the crates back, it only takes a minute to reach your destination.
Once your eyes adjust your anger flares.
Marko says, ‘I didn’t know I’d be selling to a goblin. Just make sure we get paid in city coin.’
As Lee and Simon put the top crate on the ground Gornik says, ‘You were supposed to bring four bodies.’
Marko responds, ‘The fourth body will be here shortly.’
Then a halfling slides out of the middle crate shouting ‘Goblins raising zombies! Even thieves can’t be so stupid!’”

The combat had the party scattered through the twin-layered warehouse.
Ander killed Simon pretty fast, while Marko and Lee put several dagger-sized holes in Kergan.
Admon survived surprisingly well for a wizard surrounded.
And Duncan split his attention between the groups.

Marko focused the majority of his attention on Kergan. Gornik, the goblin hexer “witch doctor”, spent the first two rounds pouring a glowing green elixir onto the heads of corpses, who would then rise as zombies to attack who he told them to.

Because every opponent other than Gornik and Marko were minions, it was not long until just Gornik and Marko were the only ones left; and not much longer before Marko fled and Kergan and Ander gave chase.

Duncan took care of the crazed Gornik, while Admon had fallen through a trap door and had to deal with a pair of hungry giant rats.

Kergan knew he had to chase after Marko or all four of them may be “taken care of” by the guild.

Chasing after Marko was a non-combat encounter where they had to go through a series of skill checks while running through the streets. It’s a modified skill challenge from the core rules, adjusted to numbers I think are fair.

First they had to chase after him (athletics) or push themselves (healing surge). (Both had to spend a healing surge.)
Next was a chance for a shortcut if they thought of it (streetwise or athletics). (Both failed.)
Next was reading Marko’s body language/movements when he came to a T-intersection to determine which way he might head (insight). Only Ander succeeded.
Then Marko tried to lose them by running through a crowd of children playing in the street (acrobatics only). Amazingly, both make the roll.
Marko was now out of sight, but Ander quickly asks an old man which way he went (diplomacy). His roll gives both a success.
Finally they had to push themselves hard to catch up to him at the last minute (endurance or a healing surge). Both succeed.

They needed four successes out of of the six chances, and they got that.

Fortunately there were no fruit carts to knock over, or men carrying a large pane of glass crossing the streets.

When they catch up to Marko, Kergan grabs him and pins him to the ground, saying “If you tell me who set the trap, I’ll kill you quickly!”
Marko responds that it wasn’t his call; it was others who were mad at Kergan for not doing as he was told.
Kergan repeated his question with a dagger to Marko’s throat, this time Marko told him that “Sam” did it and that is all he knows.

To Ander’s surprise, Kergan killed Marko.

As he dragged Marko’s body back to the warehouse, Kergan explained his reasons for killing Marko to Ander. Simply put, it was a kill or be killed situation.

While that was going on, Duncan and Admon were chatting away while searching the warehouse. In addition to the usual adventuring spoils, they found a recently used alchemical setup with no chemicals remaining.

When the four of them got back together they introduced themselves to one another.

In the midst of that I had them roll 3 skill checks simultaneously, one for Perception, one for Religion, and one for Arcane all at DC18.

Admon was the only one to make it.

(I was surprised anyone made it. He got a 100XP award basically for lucky rolling and having skill points in the right fields.)

Admon pieced together the following:
There are a lot of warehouses in the area, most of them empty now that the construction of the Grand Temple of Brekaneth is done.
Rogues were delivering crates of corpses for money.
Those same corpses were being raised as zombies.
There was a large ceremony going at that very moment.

They rush out of that warehouse, but too late.

Other storage locations within several empty blocks had dozens of human and goblin zombies pouring out of them and heading straight to the temple courtyard while screams were beginning to fill the air.

Being heroes, the party rushed to the nearest screams and found themselves coming to the aid of an undefended section of the courtyard with 2 dozen zombies (minions) rushing towards the helpless people.

Using something I had done before with a one-shot this was a “save the townspeople” encounter.

Encounter #3
20 zombie rotters + 1-4 every round, coming from various roads
40 townspeople (minions, AC12 so zombies only miss 25% of the time) and they are panicked (not allies of the party – so can’t be moved through or offer flanking)
4 rounds – the party has hold back the zombies for 4 rounds before the “cavalry” arrives.
Bonus 500XP, -25XP per townsperson killed by a zombie, -500XP if a party member kills one.

The party starts in an area near the crowd, but not much closer to the crowd than some zombies.
Admon puts his Burning Hands to good use allowing the party a better chance to control the eastern half of the map.
Several zombies are left unchecked for two rounds, causing the death of 9 townspeople. That was put to an end when Kergan and Duncan took over the western half of the map while Ander pulled swing duty and took out any “overflow” zombies.

By the end of the second round the party has managed to control the zombies, though in some cases “controlling the zombies” means a PC must become a target for the zombies.

I considered that pretty good since the party had no real defender.

When the fourth round was over the undead in this area were few in number when several clerics and both paladins of Brekaneth arrived to guarantee there would be no more zombies.

And then the role-playing began.

While the clergy of Brekaneth were taking care of the wounded and the mess, several council members thanked the party for their aid.

Although with some of the members the thanks felt a bit hollow, when Mayor Xavius Ryan came over to thank them his thanks felt genuine. Plus he praised their quick thinking and teamwork.

Duncan took this opportunity to get in good with the mayor.

The Younger Paladin of Brekaneth, Sir Edward, seemed a bit arrogant to which the Elder Paladin of Brekaneth, Girvan Torl, told Edward to mind his humility.

The mayor then requested that the four of them and Sir Edward come to his office in the morning. He has some things that he needs taken care of and they may just be perfect for the job, starting with some help for Silverhome.

All agreed immediately, but Duncan and Kergan, both Silverhome dwarves, did so a bit louder than the other 2 PC’s.

Admon spent the rest of his day assisting in the clean up.

Justin did nothing to help with the clean up, as it’s both dirty and menial work (he’s a clean freak).

Kergan returned to the warehouse to make it look like Marko and his crew got into an argument and killed each other.

Duncan talked to Ilustaria Joron, a council member to find out what the mayor’s favorite cigar is. Ilustaria knew the dwarf’s intentions but she helped him anyway and informed him that the mayor likes Endarian Noble-wine (10gp a bottle).
Duncan immediately set out to buy the wine.

Ander also returned to the warehouse, but to get a sample of the glowing green elixir that Gornik used to raise corpses as zombies. The bit he found was no longer glowing, but he took it to his patron, Sibylline Tarn.

Sibylline is a powerful elven wild mage who has taught Ander to control his magic, but hasn’t been the nicest of parental figures.

After some tests, Sibylline told Ander that he needed a fresh amount of the goblin’s elixir and a couple of mage-wort roots before he could get any conclusive results.

And that is where we stopped.
It was short, but fun session.

Quests completed:
Admon – Free Advertising [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Defeat an enemy in combat with at least a dozen witnesses from the Valley.]
Ander – None
Duncan –Networking [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Meet and converse with the mayor of the city of the Valley.]
Kergan – Confront Marko [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Confront Marko about the poison gas trap to determine who set it.]

Quests added:
Ander – Reagents for Tarn [Level: 2. Reward: 125XP. Bring Sibylline Tarn a seal vial of goblin elixir and 2 mage-wort roots without destroying more than one in the process (DC16 Arcane or Nature skill challenge)]
Kergan – Find Sam [Level: 2. Reward: 125XP. Find the Sam Marko was referring to.]

Next session should be all of us.

The Valley - the New Campaign

Ok, I’m going to have to make sure this whole new Valley thing doesn’t suck.

I’ve put too much work into.
I’ve talked way too much about it.
I’ve asked the players to do more work than usual.

But I think all of the work will pay off.

I’ve almost finished the adventure for the first night and I hope it goes off as I plan it.

All of my previous attempts at grand beginnings to a campaign came off a bit lacking, usually due to a missed detail. Not that the campaigns were bad, just the first nights weren’t as kick-ass as I had wanted.

This time I believe I have that covered. I’m simply not going to do anything over-the-top…yet.

The only thing that could bring down the night is a player not getting in to it. This shouldn’t be a problem unless a player totally hates their setup and decided to not say anything to me the past week.

Everyone, eventually sent me their back-stories, and modified them to give each PC something more than just “I’m a wizard looking for ancient magic. I have 100gp, and 22 build points.”

Justin, somewhat surprisingly had the best back-stories, even though he only made 2 PC’s (and I’m not saying he was the only one with good stories).

He gave one of his PC’s claustrophobia (minor case). I added special rules for the condition and a personal quest that would remove the condition.

Aaron will be unable to play the first session of the game, which makes introducing his PC a bit easier.

Here’s our cast of characters:

Mike will be playing Kergan Pathfinder, a dwarven rogue with experience in dealing with goblin-laid traps in the mines of Silverhome.

Scott will be playing Admon Silverblade, a young human wizard looking to make his own fortune and not use his family’s.

Dale will be playing Ander, a popular halfling sorcerer hero who mysteriously appeared in the Valley on the wings of a thunderstorm.

Justin will be playing Duncan, a Silverhome dwarven priest of Moradin who is on a path to power.

And finally Aaron will be playing Edward Winston Wootenmorgan VII, a human paladin of Brekaneth who feels he isn’t getting the respect her deserves.

The first session will be set at the time of the ceremony for Edward to receive his last blessings and be granted the holy arms and armor due the younger paladin of Brekaneth.

This next bit is some general information about NPC’s, organizations, and places within the Valley.

Brandon Accord
Brandon is one of the seven city council members and the first person from outside the Valley to obtain such a position. Many credit his charisma and genuine good nature for his elected position.

Father Jason Adrek
Father Jason represents the Church of Brekaneth in the city council.
In recent years he has toned down his rhetoric for the cleansing of all goblins, orcs, and arcanists. But it generally assumed that he still thinks it, he just doesn’t say it.

Audhild Balderk
This disgusting, old, fat, greedy, ironmonger dwarf woman is tolerated for three reasons: She’s a master potion maker, she’s a seer, and she has helped the Valley many times in her long years there.

City Council
The city council is a blending of several cultures forced together for survival. In recent years the incessant bickering and power playing of the council forced the creation of a mayoral post in the hopes that a single person can take care of the unimportant and mundane tasks that the council itself can’t deal with in the midst of their arguing.
Beyond that the council itself has worked well for a long time thanks to the hard work of its members for the past 200+ years.
It consists of 7 total members; 1 from the elven community, 1 from the Ironmonger dwarves, one from the Church of Brekaneth, and 4 elected from the main populace of the city.

Crater Lake
This circular lake sits near the center of the Valley and is now believed to be the location where the great spell was cast so many years ago.
While the water is potable, it has the smell of goblins to it as some of the water comes from areas inhabited by that unclean race.

Death’s Head Crag
This is simply a large rock perched above the city. It has a vaguely skull-shaped appearance.
Originally several buildings were built in the location, but much weathering and a small earthquake appears to have weakened its perch.
The subsequent drop in land value means that only the desperately poor and unseemly people live there.

Dhryveg Gorn
Dhryveg is the leader of the Ironmonger dwarves and is well known to be the personification of opportunism and greed. His slick tongue, quick mind, and ruthless business acumen has made him the richest person in the Valley.
He was once on the city council, but resigned when allegations of him supplying weapons to renegade members of the Church of Brekaneth were made public. After his resignation he was never charged with any crimes, something he said was proof that he had done nothing wrong and his resignation was only to calm emotions in the Valley for the good of all.

Horgred Gorn
Horgred is the nephew of Dhryveg Gorn who replaced him on the city council once Dhryveg resigned.

Guard Towers
Two tiers of guard towers ring the exposed side of the city.
The first tier is a long series of walls interspersed with guard towers approximately every 500’ and surrounded the city where there were not any of the rocky spires from the Valley to protect the city.
The second tier of towers was meant more for scouting and guard posts to protect those not living within the city, such as farmers.
Now the majority of the second tier towers lie abandoned due to economic cutbacks, or were bought from the city by wizards looking for some privacy outside the city.

Rushgar Hammersmith
Rushgar is the leader of the Silverhome dwarves.
In addition to his never-ending work in Silverhome, he seeks to purge the Valley of goblins, who always seem to find secret ways into the extended network of mines of Silverhome.

Thlyria Isara
Thlyria is the elven representative to the city council and has been since Ivellios Galanodil’s disappearance.

Ilustaria Joron
Ilustaria has been an elected member of the city council off an on for six decades. Her electors tend to be from the non-human populace living in the city.

Mirtulessa
This elven lady is a fierce protector of the Valley, and leader of the Perceptors.
Her tactical prowess saved the Valley from the Sordimar horde as much as any archmage.

William “Bull” McAllister
Owner of the Roaring Bull Inn
He bought the rundown drinking hole known as The Golden Grog a few years back. He rebuilt the place and his eye for ne’er-do-wells helped changed the way the clientele in short order.
The Roaring Bull Inn is now known as a place for all.
In spite of his aggressive nature, he is a very good person and will go out of his way to help someone, so long as they’re willing to help themselves.

Perceptors
Perceptors were once the crowd control police of the city. They were in place to both protect the city from goblin attacks, but also to put down any riots that came as a result of lack of foot or rebellion.
In the years since, there has been no need for insurrection control, and the Perceptors have become more defensive in nature.
Though Perceptors are fighting mages (usually wizards with fighting multiclassing) they are not artillery type. Their roles tend to be controlling battles and letting soldiers do what is needed.

Polaris
Polaris is the scarred silver dragon that was once the “monster of Silver Lake” that was rarely seen, and generally considered myth.
Now he is a rarely seen and unofficial protector of the city. Usually those sent looking for him never find him.

Mayor Xavius Ryan
Xavius is a charismatic half-elf who won his office with a smile.
Mayor Ryan is the stereotypical politician, who always smiles, knows the right things to say, and is very well liked.
Since this new position of mayor is only given menial jobs the city council doesn’t want to deal with, the position is mostly ceremonial.

Silver Lake
Silver Lake was named for the special way it reflected moonlight with a more silvery sheen than expected.
It is currently believed that the presence of Polaris caused this effect.
The waters are otherwise very cool and clean due to much mountain water.
Goblins consider the place haunted.

Tonus
Possibly the mightiest archmage in the Valley, Tonus is the representative for what’s left of Magus Sanctus, an organization seeking to keep magic viewed positively by putting it to good use in the world.
Tonus is very old, even for an eladrin, but remains very active.
He fights the ennui of the ancient with puzzles and games, and enjoys watching children play during recess. Several accident-prone children owe him much.

Girvan Torl
Girvan is the Elder Paladin of Brekaneth, and makes an imposing figure when he’s fully armored and speaks with his deep and authoritative voice.
He lives the idol life that a paladin of Brekaneth should, but has been known to make it known that he is not happy with particular aspects of his church, specifically how the rich have more sway in the church than they should.
It is slightly lesser known that he considers the soon to be Lesser Paladin of Brekaneth an example of the rich interfering in church matters.
Him and Mayor Ryan have long been friends, and they take each others council quite seriously.

Hilfan Tryst
Hilfan is an ancient human who should have retired from being on the city council years ago, but she refuses to step, or possibly even die.

Aegris Zahn
Aegris is an elected member of the city council. Many consider his recent election to be a fluke as his supporters are not what can be called honorable citizens.

Zenith
This silver-haired half-elf is the second in command of the Perceptors and step-son of Ivellios Galanodil.

The Order of the Mithril Dolphin #14

Well Brian won’t be joining us any longer.
His wife is due to have a baby soon so his Friday night gaming has come to an end with us.

Last week we had a session with Scott as DM for another one-shot session.
Dale couldn’t make the game on time but when he showed he had a nasty elf bow ranger modeled for ranged attacks while avoiding melee. His crits with his +3 vicious greatbow were disgusting.

Scott’s combats were tough yet good. His only flaw was giving us a tough fight but not giving us an opportunity to rest before the next, even tougher fight. The result was a horribly tough fight that made every decision and roll of the dice incredibly crucial where more than one PC dropped and recovered in some way or another.

In the end Ergot died.

Scott tried to flub a few things once he realized how bad things were going. I told him not to. The fight was tough, but not un-winnable. If he obviously threw the fight, then any victory we had would be a hollow one. But if we won on our own merit, that victory would have been considered an awesome fight where we were challenged to our limits.

Here’s a little secret when you find out you’ve gone over the top with a combat – cheat in secret, only in little bits, and only when it’s your fault. If you have a DM’s screen, then you only hit half the time and you only crit on someone you know can take the hit to keep the illusion of legitimacy. If you aren’t using a screen then shave a few points off of your to hit roll. If your players know the monsters too well and catch your “mistakes”, then oh well, slaughter them for not running and call it a “too smart for your own good tax”.

You must maintain the illusion that you’re not cheating 100%. And the best way of maintaining the illusion is to rarely do it, so only cheat when you’ve made a mistake.

I believe this session we were all level 8.
Shamash (Aaron), dragonborn fighter/cleric, defender
Sephira (Scott), dragonborn cleric, leader
Wildeyes (Me), halfling ranger/rogue, striker
Gorak (Mike), human barbarian, striker
Stout (Justin), dwarf fighter, defender (his original 4E PC)

Oh um, right, I forgot to criticize 4E.

Screw the new rust monster!
If it eats a magic item, you can raid its stomach for 100% of its value in residuum.

I smell an exploit there.
“Let’s see – we can disenchant that sword we’ve been using since level 2 and get 20% of its value or we can feed it to Rusty and then make him vomit up the full 100% of its value.”

For this final session of this campaign before its hiatus Dale used the death of Ergot as the MacGuffin to get us to travel back to Hillside after talking to Sammath Narr one more time, while saying that Stout was brother to Ergot to get him included quickly enough.

But before that we started off with a mook fight against some galeb duhrs first. The only things interesting about the fight was that Dale hates the ranger daily utility power that allows you pick people in your party that get to act in a surprise round and that Wildeyes was beaten up pretty bad by the galeb duhrs special area attack. Anywhere Wildeyes went, he was almost guaranteed to take some damage.

Soon we were back and talking to Sammath Narr. Due to my poor recollection of the events (and it didn’t help I’ve missed 2 sessions involving this storyline) I was unaware that we were about to talk to an oracle.

Mike had notes that reminded us of our goals and such. One storyline, centered on Brian’s PC, will either be abandoned or rewritten. The two other storylines right now are getting more information about the Cult of the Ebony Obelisk and the heavy bandit activity around Hillside.

Sammath had the oracle answer two questions rather than one, since one of our group had fallen.

The Cult of the Ebony Obelisk turned out to be followers of a demon known as Orcus (who apparently is not well known in this world).

The whole Oceanside/Hillside issue is about taxes. Oceanside has a large army and pays for it with high taxes from surrounding regions. Recently the roads have become bandit heavy and Oceanside has done nothing to stop it. This has lead to many in Hillside to demand secession from Oceanside’s power, but the mayor will not do so as the count of Oceanside will send its armies to crush such a rebellion.

The oracle shed a little more light on that – the count of Oceanside is undead. Hopefully that information will be enough to get the mayor to do something.

After that Wildeyes upgraded his weapons.

Now this is where dual-wielders get shafted. Bow rangers really only need one magical weapon while dual-wielders need 2. Yeah, I figure that two different magic items could have two separate special powers, and you don’t need ammunition, but I still feel there’s an issue.

Here’s a blatant example: Dale gave his bow ranger the previous session a +3 vicious greatbow while Wildeyes this week got two +2 vicious short swords. Now we’re ignoring that Dale has a greatbow itself as that’s costs a feat, and we’re ignoring that I’m using mere short swords as the halfling benefits of small size have paid off. Dale will get the same number of attacks as Wildeyes, but will consistently do more damage and hit more often thanks to the +1 bonus difference and the extra 1d12 rolled on a crit. Am I whining – probably, but it’s something for me to remember in the future – DM’s need to make sure that strikers have consistently equal or better weapons than the rest of the group.

In other words, don’t give your cleric a +3 vicious flail if your rogue is using a +1 dagger.

Of course this session it didn’t matter; I didn’t crit the whole night.

Next it was time to leave the Underdark and return to Hillside.

And once again we were ambushed in a “mushroom forest”. That place and King’s Road seems to pretty dangerous.

We were surrounded by a pair of sword spiders, some nasty spider swarms, led by a drow. All of these things were fast (+9 to initiative minimum) and they had a surprise round, once again mitigated by Wildeye’s level 6 daily utility power that allowed Gorak and Sephira to act.

In addition to these things being fast, they were also hard to hit. But it was an egg-shell type of AC: high AC + low to moderate hit points.

We ended up ignoring the near 30 AC drow while pounding the spiders. Eventually the drow fled.

Eventually we made it back to Hillside and Ergot was raised. He then went out for a night of drinking and fun, but disappeared.

We were eventually given a note to meet some people who had him at one of the many inns of Hillside.

We knew it was a trap, but we triggered it, though Aaron brought up a good point:
Dale either overestimates how much we care about Ergot, or he underestimates how much we’re willing to get into fights.

Answer: a little from column A and a little from column B.

So we went to the inn and along the way were dead people scattered everywhere just outside the place.

The bloody mess led right up to the inn and inside, ready to attack, and in no mood to talk with us:
3 Battle Wights
1 Battle Wight Commander
4 Vampire Spawn
1 Vampire Lord

After the first round we realized we in bad shape.

We had somewhat scattered in the room, attempting to do our usual “defender up front, strikers surround” tactics going after better tactical targets. That ended fast when we found out their attacks immobilize, slow, and/or weaken you and they have high AC’s.

On round 2 we switched to “target that explosion and fire”. In other words we took risks to get ourselves into positions where we would all focus our attacks against one target, regardless of reasonable risks because we had to take these guys down one at a time.

First the spawn died, as minions tend to do.
Then we focused on the commander until he dropped.
Then we focused on the vampire lord until he slipped away from melee.
Then the battle wights dropped one at a time.

What started off as a tough fight quickly turned into a somewhat easy one.

Finally the vampire lord ran.

I’m guessing he’s off to tell his Strahd-like boss that we’re not as easy as he’d hoped.

And thus ends our time in Hillside for a little while.

Our next session will come in two weeks in the Valley, or as Dale calls it “Severe World”.