Friday, July 17, 2009

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.

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