The Valley #4
If you want to mess with your players’ heads, pull out some extra miniatures when prepping for the game.
Whenever I do it one player always takes notice and makes comment like Aaron, “I just noticed what you’re doing and I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
Speaking of Aaron, he didn’t like the revisions to the paladin’s marking ability, so he went back to the PHB version. He didn’t like that the only penalty for a marked target not coming after him was a -2 to attack. I certainly understand, though I feel the pulling effect makes up for it and I’m not a fan of marking when it causes a break in the flow of combat.
Ah, do you remember the good old days when all you had to do was attack once or twice, and then roll damage, and you never had to check for modifiers each round?
Oh early D&D, how I miss thee.
Though I just know if I was in a 1E AD&D game I’d find something screwy there that I totally forgot about (hush THAC0 haters).
This session went well, though the group almost didn’t do what I expected which meant I would have had to drastically change my plans.
Luckily I was able to make the path I wanted them to go all nice and shiny so they’d be attracted to it. Hopefully I wasn’t too blatant about it.
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
Ander (Dale); level 2 halfling sorcerer
As usual we started off with role-playing.
Kergan is almost desperately trying to get in contact with the Thieves’ Guild, but no one is talking to him, and he’s getting the feeling that he’s a pariah to the guild.
Not letting that stand in his way, he has other business he wanted to check into.
Kergan asked Duncan to get a temple historian to check into something for him. The best historian the temple has is Duncan’s superior, Agramarr Flamehammer
Before he died, Kergan’s father had given Kergan a tiny platinum pick. This pick supposedly is the key to some great treasure in the Valley.
Agramarr said he knew nothing but would research into it. And in a sign of trust I did not thing someone playing a rogue could do, he left the key in Agramarr’s care while he researched.
Ander had a different dilemma; he had murdered a captured goblin , and some of the people in this group he was with didn’t exactly act in an honorable manner.
So he talked to the only person he felt he could chat with, Sibylline Tarn.
Unfortunately Sibylline isn’t exactly the best person to ask questions on morality. His responses were in his normal blunt and scathing manner “Killing goblins is not something to cry about.” “Killing someone who has tried to kill you is what you are supposed to do.” “Honor is just a bunch of rules that your adversaries can use to kill you with.”
Mr. Tarn is not exactly a nice elf.
After other role-playing, we jumped right into initiative.
Encounter #1 was against yet more goblins. Initially the party didn’t exactly know why they were fighting the goblins. That would be explained over the first three combat rounds, in addition to something that wouldn’t happen until much later in the session.
The combat was setup next to a cave, with several goblins in and out of the cave and a tangler beetle, with four human guards being forced to mine for gems inside the cave.
As usual the party had no real trouble overall, but one thing for your own use – goblin sharpshooters are dangerous. Just ask Ander. In two different fights he’s been blasted unconscious by them.
Read to Admon and Edward over the span of the first three rounds before their action:
Round 1
Admon, why is it that every time you take a job from the city, you get into worse trouble than the pay is worth?
Edward, just a few hours ago you were doing your duty. Now you’re filled with confusion and rage. And worse, you can’t even kill this “thing”, this goblin.
Round 2:
Admon: All they said you had to do was make rounds to several of the guard towers, and you would each get 5 gold. Apparently the number 7 is not your lucky number.
Edward: You hear their voices behind you, telling you that you can’t do it. This wretched creature deserves to die for its blasphemy, but doing so means you and your comrades-in-arms die also.
Round 3:
Admon: Save the captured guards from the goblins became your new task. Then it turned into a hit-and-run attack. And now you have to stop a paladin from getting you and your friends killed.
Edward: With the grace of Brekaneth you calm yourself. You now have to let this piece of filth live or face a couple hundred goblins that have you pinned in here. But now it will have to answer why there’s a drawing of Brekaneth’s holiest gift on the table.
When combat was over the guards thanked them and told them that they’d been forced to mine for gems, even though this cave was no longer viable as a gem source.
They also found a map on the lead goblin. Edward, who’s learning the goblin language could make out some of the writing, but to ensure they missed nothing Admon cast Comprehend Languages.
It showed a simple map from a hilly area to the cave they were in. The hilly area had a spot marked “talk cave” and this cave was marked as “gem cave”. The writing read “The Dead Dwarves are dead and gone. We need more treasure to convince the Cracked Shields to join us. With them on our side we can destroy the human’s city.”
Given the two options of going back to the city or investigating the area of the “talk cave”, thankfully they chose to scout the cave.
The location of the talk caves had several small hills, perfect for hiding from a distance, but also perfect to sneak up on. This made it possible for the party to get to the near top of one of the hills and then for Kergan to do scouting of the staging area of the talks.
With a natural 20 perception roll, I gave Kergan all the information he needed, and a little extra to get the party to actually go and interrupt the talks.
Kergan determined that the talks were under way, both groups had set up camps and were doing regular patrols, both were around 300 strong, and there was a lone door on the side of a hill flanked by one goblin from each of the two clans (Broken Bone and Cracked Shield). But most importantly he noticed a pattern to the patrols; one he could exploit to sneak up on the door with only the two guards to protect it.
After much discussion (and another discussion about how plate armor had a mere -2 to move silent checks), the group decided to take out the two guards and ruin the talks.
The only possible snags would be not being able to take out both guards before they were able to blow a warning signal with their horns, to open the door before any of the guard patrols showed up, and to do it all quietly.
Another snag they wouldn’t see until it was too late was that the door was magically locked and required some skilled lock picking to get opened. What the DM didn’t know was that DC16 was entirely too low of a difficulty for Kergan.
The entire group made their move silent checks (though just barely), they took out the guards with their surprise round and normal round, Kergan got the lock open with Admon’s arcane assistance.
They were noticed by a guard patrol, but it was too late for the party to be swarmed. They got everyone in the door and closed it, and the door relocked itself, giving the party time to do some damage to the talks.
After barring the door additionally, they got a quick rest in and checked the next door.
That’s when I found out that Edward only has a strength score of 13. The door to the talks was jammed shut and if the party wanted to get a surprise round they had to bust it open with a DC16 strength check on the first try.
That was a failure until around the tenth try.
The room was relatively small (3x5) with a large stone table in the center. On the table was a suit of plate armor, a pile of good, and a piece of paper.
Two goblins from each of the two clans were on the long side of the table.
The party now knows that they need to capture a leader goblin to get out alive as there are no other exits from the cave.
Admon uses his first action to use Mage Hand to grab the paper, seeing that it is only the drawing of a mace (bye-bye action point).
The party then let loose with their daily powers, thrashing the goblins pretty hard while taking a good beating from the goblins.
In the end they decided to subdue both goblin leaders as an insurance policy.
Then they take a closer look at the drawing of the mace and recognize it as the Voice of Brekaneth – the holiest weapon the church has. Now insert the part where Edward wants to kill one of the goblins from the first encounter.
The leader of the Cracked Shield contingent knows that he won’t be killed so he just laughs at the party while the leader of the Broken Bone contingent much more easily believes the party’s threats, so he spills his guts.
The extermination of the Dead Dwarf goblin clan terrified the Broken Bone goblin clan, as they see themselves next in line (being closest to Silverhome and the city). So they are trying to create a truce with the Cracked Shield goblin clan and unite to make they aren’t exterminated too.
So they brought money and magical armor to the talks, but the Cracked Shields wanted the mace on the paper and they believe the Broken Bones have it.
That’s when the party barged in, but the goblin claims to have never seen that mace.
In the end the party succeeded in escaping intact by holding the goblins hostage, letting them go at the right time, and then running for their lives directly to the city to warn them.
Once back in town Duncan warns the mayor, who in turn sends warning to the appropriate people.
Ander talks to Sibylline, who is very short with him for wasting his time while he should be defending the city. Out of spite Ander leaves out the bit about the Voice of Brekaneth.
Kergan heads to Silverhome to warn Agramarr Flamehammer.
Duncan meets up with Kergan and Agramarr and all three warn Rushgar Hammersmith, including the information about the Dead Dwarf clan’s extermination starting all of this. Rushgar sounds the alarm while being amazed that the goblins would bother uniting at all.
And finally Edward and Admon go warn the high priest of Brekaneth, Father Jason Adrek and Girvan Torl, of the situation.
Note: Jason Adrek is not a fan of wizards, sorcerers, and their ilk, so he’s not exactly friendly to Admon, though he’s not as openly irritated when he finds out that Admon is a follower of Brekaneth.
Edward fills them in on the situation, with an emphasis on the Voice.
Adrek points out that the Voice is “right over there”, on the wall behind the altar.
Long story short, that Voice was a fake.
According to Father Adrek, several years back, after “I gave a particularly amazing speech” a sergeant in the church became filled with delusions of glory and stole the real Voice of Brekaneth. Then he gathered some friends and headed off to destroy the goblin clans.
Neither he nor any of his group were seen ever since.
On a rumor that the Voice fell into the hands of the Broken Bone clan, a force of loyal soldiers of the church attacked the clan. But Brekaneth was not with them, and they were slaughtered.
So a fake was made to hide the church’s shame.
And that is where we ended.
Quests completed:
Kergan: Goblins! [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Kill 10 goblin minions.]
Edward: Proven Superiority [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Be the only one of your group to be bloodied during a combat equal to greater than your level.]
New quests:
Edward – The Holiest Gift [Level: 3. Reward: 150XP. Find information leading to the whereabouts of the Voice of Brekaneth.]
Admon – The Holiest Gift [Level: 3. Reward: 150XP. Find information leading to the whereabouts of the Voice of Brekaneth.]
Next session: No Justin and no Mike.
Whenever I do it one player always takes notice and makes comment like Aaron, “I just noticed what you’re doing and I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
Speaking of Aaron, he didn’t like the revisions to the paladin’s marking ability, so he went back to the PHB version. He didn’t like that the only penalty for a marked target not coming after him was a -2 to attack. I certainly understand, though I feel the pulling effect makes up for it and I’m not a fan of marking when it causes a break in the flow of combat.
Ah, do you remember the good old days when all you had to do was attack once or twice, and then roll damage, and you never had to check for modifiers each round?
Oh early D&D, how I miss thee.
Though I just know if I was in a 1E AD&D game I’d find something screwy there that I totally forgot about (hush THAC0 haters).
This session went well, though the group almost didn’t do what I expected which meant I would have had to drastically change my plans.
Luckily I was able to make the path I wanted them to go all nice and shiny so they’d be attracted to it. Hopefully I wasn’t too blatant about it.
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
Ander (Dale); level 2 halfling sorcerer
As usual we started off with role-playing.
Kergan is almost desperately trying to get in contact with the Thieves’ Guild, but no one is talking to him, and he’s getting the feeling that he’s a pariah to the guild.
Not letting that stand in his way, he has other business he wanted to check into.
Kergan asked Duncan to get a temple historian to check into something for him. The best historian the temple has is Duncan’s superior, Agramarr Flamehammer
Before he died, Kergan’s father had given Kergan a tiny platinum pick. This pick supposedly is the key to some great treasure in the Valley.
Agramarr said he knew nothing but would research into it. And in a sign of trust I did not thing someone playing a rogue could do, he left the key in Agramarr’s care while he researched.
Ander had a different dilemma; he had murdered a captured goblin , and some of the people in this group he was with didn’t exactly act in an honorable manner.
So he talked to the only person he felt he could chat with, Sibylline Tarn.
Unfortunately Sibylline isn’t exactly the best person to ask questions on morality. His responses were in his normal blunt and scathing manner “Killing goblins is not something to cry about.” “Killing someone who has tried to kill you is what you are supposed to do.” “Honor is just a bunch of rules that your adversaries can use to kill you with.”
Mr. Tarn is not exactly a nice elf.
After other role-playing, we jumped right into initiative.
Encounter #1 was against yet more goblins. Initially the party didn’t exactly know why they were fighting the goblins. That would be explained over the first three combat rounds, in addition to something that wouldn’t happen until much later in the session.
The combat was setup next to a cave, with several goblins in and out of the cave and a tangler beetle, with four human guards being forced to mine for gems inside the cave.
As usual the party had no real trouble overall, but one thing for your own use – goblin sharpshooters are dangerous. Just ask Ander. In two different fights he’s been blasted unconscious by them.
Read to Admon and Edward over the span of the first three rounds before their action:
Round 1
Admon, why is it that every time you take a job from the city, you get into worse trouble than the pay is worth?
Edward, just a few hours ago you were doing your duty. Now you’re filled with confusion and rage. And worse, you can’t even kill this “thing”, this goblin.
Round 2:
Admon: All they said you had to do was make rounds to several of the guard towers, and you would each get 5 gold. Apparently the number 7 is not your lucky number.
Edward: You hear their voices behind you, telling you that you can’t do it. This wretched creature deserves to die for its blasphemy, but doing so means you and your comrades-in-arms die also.
Round 3:
Admon: Save the captured guards from the goblins became your new task. Then it turned into a hit-and-run attack. And now you have to stop a paladin from getting you and your friends killed.
Edward: With the grace of Brekaneth you calm yourself. You now have to let this piece of filth live or face a couple hundred goblins that have you pinned in here. But now it will have to answer why there’s a drawing of Brekaneth’s holiest gift on the table.
When combat was over the guards thanked them and told them that they’d been forced to mine for gems, even though this cave was no longer viable as a gem source.
They also found a map on the lead goblin. Edward, who’s learning the goblin language could make out some of the writing, but to ensure they missed nothing Admon cast Comprehend Languages.
It showed a simple map from a hilly area to the cave they were in. The hilly area had a spot marked “talk cave” and this cave was marked as “gem cave”. The writing read “The Dead Dwarves are dead and gone. We need more treasure to convince the Cracked Shields to join us. With them on our side we can destroy the human’s city.”
Given the two options of going back to the city or investigating the area of the “talk cave”, thankfully they chose to scout the cave.
The location of the talk caves had several small hills, perfect for hiding from a distance, but also perfect to sneak up on. This made it possible for the party to get to the near top of one of the hills and then for Kergan to do scouting of the staging area of the talks.
With a natural 20 perception roll, I gave Kergan all the information he needed, and a little extra to get the party to actually go and interrupt the talks.
Kergan determined that the talks were under way, both groups had set up camps and were doing regular patrols, both were around 300 strong, and there was a lone door on the side of a hill flanked by one goblin from each of the two clans (Broken Bone and Cracked Shield). But most importantly he noticed a pattern to the patrols; one he could exploit to sneak up on the door with only the two guards to protect it.
After much discussion (and another discussion about how plate armor had a mere -2 to move silent checks), the group decided to take out the two guards and ruin the talks.
The only possible snags would be not being able to take out both guards before they were able to blow a warning signal with their horns, to open the door before any of the guard patrols showed up, and to do it all quietly.
Another snag they wouldn’t see until it was too late was that the door was magically locked and required some skilled lock picking to get opened. What the DM didn’t know was that DC16 was entirely too low of a difficulty for Kergan.
The entire group made their move silent checks (though just barely), they took out the guards with their surprise round and normal round, Kergan got the lock open with Admon’s arcane assistance.
They were noticed by a guard patrol, but it was too late for the party to be swarmed. They got everyone in the door and closed it, and the door relocked itself, giving the party time to do some damage to the talks.
After barring the door additionally, they got a quick rest in and checked the next door.
That’s when I found out that Edward only has a strength score of 13. The door to the talks was jammed shut and if the party wanted to get a surprise round they had to bust it open with a DC16 strength check on the first try.
That was a failure until around the tenth try.
The room was relatively small (3x5) with a large stone table in the center. On the table was a suit of plate armor, a pile of good, and a piece of paper.
Two goblins from each of the two clans were on the long side of the table.
The party now knows that they need to capture a leader goblin to get out alive as there are no other exits from the cave.
Admon uses his first action to use Mage Hand to grab the paper, seeing that it is only the drawing of a mace (bye-bye action point).
The party then let loose with their daily powers, thrashing the goblins pretty hard while taking a good beating from the goblins.
In the end they decided to subdue both goblin leaders as an insurance policy.
Then they take a closer look at the drawing of the mace and recognize it as the Voice of Brekaneth – the holiest weapon the church has. Now insert the part where Edward wants to kill one of the goblins from the first encounter.
The leader of the Cracked Shield contingent knows that he won’t be killed so he just laughs at the party while the leader of the Broken Bone contingent much more easily believes the party’s threats, so he spills his guts.
The extermination of the Dead Dwarf goblin clan terrified the Broken Bone goblin clan, as they see themselves next in line (being closest to Silverhome and the city). So they are trying to create a truce with the Cracked Shield goblin clan and unite to make they aren’t exterminated too.
So they brought money and magical armor to the talks, but the Cracked Shields wanted the mace on the paper and they believe the Broken Bones have it.
That’s when the party barged in, but the goblin claims to have never seen that mace.
In the end the party succeeded in escaping intact by holding the goblins hostage, letting them go at the right time, and then running for their lives directly to the city to warn them.
Once back in town Duncan warns the mayor, who in turn sends warning to the appropriate people.
Ander talks to Sibylline, who is very short with him for wasting his time while he should be defending the city. Out of spite Ander leaves out the bit about the Voice of Brekaneth.
Kergan heads to Silverhome to warn Agramarr Flamehammer.
Duncan meets up with Kergan and Agramarr and all three warn Rushgar Hammersmith, including the information about the Dead Dwarf clan’s extermination starting all of this. Rushgar sounds the alarm while being amazed that the goblins would bother uniting at all.
And finally Edward and Admon go warn the high priest of Brekaneth, Father Jason Adrek and Girvan Torl, of the situation.
Note: Jason Adrek is not a fan of wizards, sorcerers, and their ilk, so he’s not exactly friendly to Admon, though he’s not as openly irritated when he finds out that Admon is a follower of Brekaneth.
Edward fills them in on the situation, with an emphasis on the Voice.
Adrek points out that the Voice is “right over there”, on the wall behind the altar.
Long story short, that Voice was a fake.
According to Father Adrek, several years back, after “I gave a particularly amazing speech” a sergeant in the church became filled with delusions of glory and stole the real Voice of Brekaneth. Then he gathered some friends and headed off to destroy the goblin clans.
Neither he nor any of his group were seen ever since.
On a rumor that the Voice fell into the hands of the Broken Bone clan, a force of loyal soldiers of the church attacked the clan. But Brekaneth was not with them, and they were slaughtered.
So a fake was made to hide the church’s shame.
And that is where we ended.
Quests completed:
Kergan: Goblins! [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Kill 10 goblin minions.]
Edward: Proven Superiority [Level: 1. Reward: 100XP. Be the only one of your group to be bloodied during a combat equal to greater than your level.]
New quests:
Edward – The Holiest Gift [Level: 3. Reward: 150XP. Find information leading to the whereabouts of the Voice of Brekaneth.]
Admon – The Holiest Gift [Level: 3. Reward: 150XP. Find information leading to the whereabouts of the Voice of Brekaneth.]
Next session: No Justin and no Mike.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 7:15 AM
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