The session was fairly routine. Chimera are extremely stupid (INT 3) so this one remained distracted by its phantasmal rival and the party eventually finished it off. I rolled an encounter for their camp that night, so two ogres attacked and were promptly dispatched. In between, they visited the famous and fabulously overbuilt Stone Bridge spanning the Dessarin River. They met another party of dwarven pilgrims -- again, 7 dwarves, so it's officially a thing now, you need 7 dwarves on your pilgrimage to the bridge. They dropped some background on the ancient dwarven kingdom of Tyar-Besilmer, so it wasn't completely random.
The big problem is scheduling -- we're going to wind up about six weeks without a game, due to various conflicts. I offered to put together something that could be played by email, although I think I'd run it through the game's forum on Roll20 instead. So far there hasn't been a clamor for an asynchronous game, but it will make an interesting change of pace so I'm keeping it for the next session.
This was an interesting design challenge. No combat. I thought about having them meet up with a caravan of barges, so people could go on different barges and not need to be all together, but that was just a thing to do. There needed to be a goal.
So then I thought about them having to solve a problem. They're marching along a river. The river near me has a large marsh/pond. Getting the party across a marsh would be a challenge. But maybe they just decide to go around the marsh; that would be dull. So I came up with a house on the far side of the marsh. They could explore the house and find an alchemy lab, which gives me the opportunity to give them some potions heading into their next major conflict. Having healing potions always makes a party happy.
I had been looking at ideas for puzzles and came across a mirror puzzle -- the reflection doesn't match the room reflected, so you have to add objects until they match and then the mirror becomes a passage. This would create the opportunity for a kind of scavenger hunt. This would let the characters split up and work on different elements, so we wouldn't get stuck waiting for someone. I went through the character sheets to find things that each character could contribute, like the Mending cantrip and the Comprehend Languages spell.
Now I'm pondering whether to tie the abandoned house into the main plot, and have the inhabitants be captives of one of the cults. This could be a way to nudge them in the direction of the water cult. My group likes happy endings; getting to save people is always nice.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
PotA Session 20
Wherein we see the effect of the right spell in the right situation. Twice.
First, we had to deal with some map confusion. Feathergale Spire stands on the edge of the Sighing Valley, through which flows the Lost River. This river is not to be confused with the Dessarin River which flows through the Dessarin Valley, but it was. So it took some time to work out that the party needed to go farther than just the other side of the canyon. Eventually they decided to follow the Larch Trail up to the cross road, head east to the Stone Bridge and then down the river to the monastery. So, the long way around, but they wouldn't run into any of the other keeps.
Looking for thematic encounters, I noticed that the Sighing Valley was home to blood hawks. I figured I'd mix it up a little and have them attacked by a flock of small things. What I failed to notice until I started was the LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE of two dozen small opponents. Apparently I had blocked the memory of the giant tower battle, because otherwise, you'd think I would have learned something.
The blood hawk encounter lasted two rounds, and took up most of the session. At least I didn't give them all separate initiatives. They attacked, and the group got lots of practice with opportunity attacks as they flew past. Then we got our first right spell in the right situation: Lilliandra cast Sleep. Which starts with the lowest hit points. The wounded birds took 1d6 falling damage, which killed 3-4 outright and left another 3-4 injured. Most of the fighters used readied actions to attack birds as they closed, and the spellcasters had plenty of ranged options. So even though there were a lot of targets, the group made steady progress. In the end, 20 blood hawks died and 4 escaped.
The hippogriff had been hit by three attacks and was down to 25% HP. Freyja and Maendir had to do some tag-team animal wrangling to calm her down enough for Truth to provide healing.
I rolled for a benign encounter as well, so I had them meet a party of dwarves heading south, coming from a pilgrimage to the Stone Bridge. Su'uvarax spoke dwarvish and rolled very well on his clan identification, so they had a jolly meeting, spoiled only by some heavy rain in the night, and the cart pony's discomfort with a lurking hippogriff.
I was reluctant to get into the next encounter so late, but we decided we might as well get started. So the next day, they were attacked by a chimera. Lots of ranged attacks as it closed, but the thing has a ton of hit points. Most of the party scattered, but it was able to catch Silaqui and Miyamoto in its fire breath, and they both fell down. Su'uvarax pulled them to shelter and stabilized Silaqui; Lilliandra cast Healing Word on Miyamoto.
Then came our second right spell for the right situation. The group had rolled to see what they knew about chimera, and most of them were pretty knowledgeable. Truth wanted to know if it was intelligent and territorial. When the answers came back "no" and "yes," he cast Phantasmal Force to create an illusory chimera. The real chimera was fooled and used its recovered flame breath on its "rival."
We ended the session after the second round of combat. Next time, we finish that up and travel to the Stone Bridge. Since they'll be hiking along the river after that, I need to prep some of the more watery foes. I'm thinking a tag team of will-o-wisps and hag would be interesting.
First, we had to deal with some map confusion. Feathergale Spire stands on the edge of the Sighing Valley, through which flows the Lost River. This river is not to be confused with the Dessarin River which flows through the Dessarin Valley, but it was. So it took some time to work out that the party needed to go farther than just the other side of the canyon. Eventually they decided to follow the Larch Trail up to the cross road, head east to the Stone Bridge and then down the river to the monastery. So, the long way around, but they wouldn't run into any of the other keeps.
Looking for thematic encounters, I noticed that the Sighing Valley was home to blood hawks. I figured I'd mix it up a little and have them attacked by a flock of small things. What I failed to notice until I started was the LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE of two dozen small opponents. Apparently I had blocked the memory of the giant tower battle, because otherwise, you'd think I would have learned something.
The blood hawk encounter lasted two rounds, and took up most of the session. At least I didn't give them all separate initiatives. They attacked, and the group got lots of practice with opportunity attacks as they flew past. Then we got our first right spell in the right situation: Lilliandra cast Sleep. Which starts with the lowest hit points. The wounded birds took 1d6 falling damage, which killed 3-4 outright and left another 3-4 injured. Most of the fighters used readied actions to attack birds as they closed, and the spellcasters had plenty of ranged options. So even though there were a lot of targets, the group made steady progress. In the end, 20 blood hawks died and 4 escaped.
The hippogriff had been hit by three attacks and was down to 25% HP. Freyja and Maendir had to do some tag-team animal wrangling to calm her down enough for Truth to provide healing.
I rolled for a benign encounter as well, so I had them meet a party of dwarves heading south, coming from a pilgrimage to the Stone Bridge. Su'uvarax spoke dwarvish and rolled very well on his clan identification, so they had a jolly meeting, spoiled only by some heavy rain in the night, and the cart pony's discomfort with a lurking hippogriff.
I was reluctant to get into the next encounter so late, but we decided we might as well get started. So the next day, they were attacked by a chimera. Lots of ranged attacks as it closed, but the thing has a ton of hit points. Most of the party scattered, but it was able to catch Silaqui and Miyamoto in its fire breath, and they both fell down. Su'uvarax pulled them to shelter and stabilized Silaqui; Lilliandra cast Healing Word on Miyamoto.
Then came our second right spell for the right situation. The group had rolled to see what they knew about chimera, and most of them were pretty knowledgeable. Truth wanted to know if it was intelligent and territorial. When the answers came back "no" and "yes," he cast Phantasmal Force to create an illusory chimera. The real chimera was fooled and used its recovered flame breath on its "rival."
We ended the session after the second round of combat. Next time, we finish that up and travel to the Stone Bridge. Since they'll be hiking along the river after that, I need to prep some of the more watery foes. I'm thinking a tag team of will-o-wisps and hag would be interesting.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
PotA Session 19
You can never plan on the dice.
The party was, as usual, split. The two on the pinnacle would probably be okay. But on the ground level, Su'uvarax and Truth were inside the tower, low on everything, and the drawbridge was halfway up and rising. My plan was to free up Freyja and Silaqui so they could get downstairs, and hopefully get the drawbridge back down to reunite the party. For resources, I had aarakocra in the valley who would be willing to help. Unfortunately, they're not that formidable; they'd be able to help turn things around, but probably not quickly enough to help Su'uvarax and Truth. However, five aarakocra are able to summon an air elemental, and that's a game-changer.
So at the start of the round, five aarakocra appeared up at the top of the tower and their air elemental dispatched the priest. That left Freyja and Silaqui fighting single targets. Another foe had made off with Freyja's hippogriff; he rolled poorly for Perception and didn't notice the reinforcements. Freyja finished her opponent but Silaqui missed.
Down on the ground, Zook was out of spells -- but he still had some sorcery points. So we got practice with another game mechanic and Zook used Misty Step to bring his full pool of HP inside the tower. Once there, all he had was a crossbow and some uncooperative dice, but it was a start.
Then Maendir moved along the edge of the canyon to line up a shot behind the half-raised drawbridge, through the double doors, and into the guy hauling up the drawbridge -- Roll20's ruler tool is so helpful with archers. And he rolled a 20. And he has the Sharpshooter feat. And the guy had only 5 HP left. So he was obviously utterly splatulated. I decided that his corpse got entangled with the drawbridge mechanism and left the drawbridge stuck at a quarter raised -- enough of an opening for the rest of the party to exploit.
Just about that time, Miyamoto Saigo showed up to chip in. Will decided that he was from some Far Eastern region, and had been magically banished when his clan was defeated. He has been wandering and working as a guard since. I figured he would like the military discipline of the Knights of Samular, so he's friendly with them. To put him on the trail of the missing delegation, I pulled the thread of the fallen soldier's body being returned for burial at Summit Hall. Then he ran into Hazel, the rescued halfling, travelling with a caravan to Waterdeep, and heard about the caravan raids from the towers. One player introduction successfully engineered. He recognized the party from Hazel's description -- Su'uvarax, for one, is quite distinctive -- so he helped out.
The downstairs priest tried using Gaseous Form to escape once the tide turned, but his movement was only 10' and the spellcasters managed to dispatch him. The hippogriff thief landed to attack Maendir, but the air elemental pursued and finished him off. One hurricane almost managed to get away, but I forgot that he had to open the outer stable door and he just ran out of movement at the last minute. Everyone but Liliandra and Maendir had chased him downstairs, so that was the end of him. The air elemental also took care of three initiates who were escaping on some giant vultures -- no survivors for the air cult.
Afterwards, one of the aarakocra landed and told Maendir, "They will staff the tower again." Maendir had stayed outside to protect Thoril's body from the hippogriff. She wanted to fly, so he let her go. I was hoping that would be the end of her, but I rolled high, so she came back to the tower stables during the night.
With the battle over and the aarakocra on their way, we wrapped up with Miyamoto introducing himself to the party, and then they came up with a suitable funeral for Thoril. Their night in the tower passed uneventfully.
Now it's across the hills some more to the Sacred Stone monastery. I'll have to find a good encounter with an air-based creature to bedevil them a bit.
The party was, as usual, split. The two on the pinnacle would probably be okay. But on the ground level, Su'uvarax and Truth were inside the tower, low on everything, and the drawbridge was halfway up and rising. My plan was to free up Freyja and Silaqui so they could get downstairs, and hopefully get the drawbridge back down to reunite the party. For resources, I had aarakocra in the valley who would be willing to help. Unfortunately, they're not that formidable; they'd be able to help turn things around, but probably not quickly enough to help Su'uvarax and Truth. However, five aarakocra are able to summon an air elemental, and that's a game-changer.
So at the start of the round, five aarakocra appeared up at the top of the tower and their air elemental dispatched the priest. That left Freyja and Silaqui fighting single targets. Another foe had made off with Freyja's hippogriff; he rolled poorly for Perception and didn't notice the reinforcements. Freyja finished her opponent but Silaqui missed.
Down on the ground, Zook was out of spells -- but he still had some sorcery points. So we got practice with another game mechanic and Zook used Misty Step to bring his full pool of HP inside the tower. Once there, all he had was a crossbow and some uncooperative dice, but it was a start.
Then Maendir moved along the edge of the canyon to line up a shot behind the half-raised drawbridge, through the double doors, and into the guy hauling up the drawbridge -- Roll20's ruler tool is so helpful with archers. And he rolled a 20. And he has the Sharpshooter feat. And the guy had only 5 HP left. So he was obviously utterly splatulated. I decided that his corpse got entangled with the drawbridge mechanism and left the drawbridge stuck at a quarter raised -- enough of an opening for the rest of the party to exploit.
Just about that time, Miyamoto Saigo showed up to chip in. Will decided that he was from some Far Eastern region, and had been magically banished when his clan was defeated. He has been wandering and working as a guard since. I figured he would like the military discipline of the Knights of Samular, so he's friendly with them. To put him on the trail of the missing delegation, I pulled the thread of the fallen soldier's body being returned for burial at Summit Hall. Then he ran into Hazel, the rescued halfling, travelling with a caravan to Waterdeep, and heard about the caravan raids from the towers. One player introduction successfully engineered. He recognized the party from Hazel's description -- Su'uvarax, for one, is quite distinctive -- so he helped out.
The downstairs priest tried using Gaseous Form to escape once the tide turned, but his movement was only 10' and the spellcasters managed to dispatch him. The hippogriff thief landed to attack Maendir, but the air elemental pursued and finished him off. One hurricane almost managed to get away, but I forgot that he had to open the outer stable door and he just ran out of movement at the last minute. Everyone but Liliandra and Maendir had chased him downstairs, so that was the end of him. The air elemental also took care of three initiates who were escaping on some giant vultures -- no survivors for the air cult.
Afterwards, one of the aarakocra landed and told Maendir, "They will staff the tower again." Maendir had stayed outside to protect Thoril's body from the hippogriff. She wanted to fly, so he let her go. I was hoping that would be the end of her, but I rolled high, so she came back to the tower stables during the night.
With the battle over and the aarakocra on their way, we wrapped up with Miyamoto introducing himself to the party, and then they came up with a suitable funeral for Thoril. Their night in the tower passed uneventfully.
Now it's across the hills some more to the Sacred Stone monastery. I'll have to find a good encounter with an air-based creature to bedevil them a bit.
Friday, January 20, 2017
PotA Session 18
Well, they're not all dead yet...
We managed to get through 4 rounds of combat. Since each round had over 20 combatants, that's not too bad. Sadly, 4 hurricanes missed at least one turn because it took me a while to notice that they weren't in the initiative order. Too many moving parts, divided across 2 combats.
Up on the pinnacle, Freyja and Silaqui initially faced 2 hurricanes and a priest, with 2 more hurricanes joining in. One hurricane concentrated on stealing the hippogriff, in order to trap them on the roof. It took three skill checks before he could persuade it to take off. Freyja was occupied with fighting two more. Silaqui softened up the roof party with a few Scorching Ray spells and switched to fighting. She's a bladesinger with an AC of 20 and Freyja is a raging barbarian, so they're actually doing okay -- down to two half-dead hurricanes and a priest, since the hippogriff thief is out of it. The priest is letting the hurricanes handle things. He doesn't have any good ranged attacks, nothing that won't mess up his own guys. If they fall, he'll probably use Gaseous Form to escape to the stables, which have some giant vultures on standby.
The other combat was the frontal assault on the drawbridge. Thoril was the only one in the entry hall; the rest of them were outside using ranged attacks, but Su'uvarax parked his 315 pounds at the end of the drawbridge to keep it open. My strategy here was to get the drawbridge closed again. The downstairs priest cast a Dust Devil on the drawbridge. Thoril decided early on to withdraw but couldn't clear the drawbridge. The hurricanes have tons of movement, so they all popped out, cast Thunderwave, and popped back into hiding. Unfortunately, Thoril fell over from a thunderwave. Then he took damage from yet another Thunderwave (failed death save), rolled badly for a failed death save, and then took damage from the Dust Devil (failed death save). I offered Will a chance to save him, but the concept wasn't working out and he wants to try a samurai instead. Most likely I'll have him looking for the missing delegation, since that element isn't getting much attention yet. It would also be nice to give him a connection to the Knights of Samular, so someone could recognize the lich in the earth temple.
The hurricanes managed to clear the drawbridge and started to raise it. Su'uvarax slowed it by hanging off the end, and then Maendir shot the guy working the gears and it fell back open. Truth ventured inside the tower and Su'uvarax followed him, so the hurricanes started hauling it up again. This is making it hard for the outside group to get lines of attack. Truth got dropped but Liliandra used Healing Word to get him conscious again. She's out of spells, though. Zook used Misty Step to close and then blinded a couple of guys using him Gem of Brightness. Currently the downstairs group has Truth and Su'uvarax, both well below half, inside the drawbridge facing two guys with a handful of HP, one full strength hurricane and a priest who's above half. Zook, Liliandra and Maendir are outside; Zook is undamaged while the other two are down about half.
So things could get dire for the downstairs team, unless Freyja and Silaqui are able to join them in the next round, or they find a way to get the drawbridge back down. It's about halfway closed now, but that's enough to cut off the ranged attacks. Still, I'm impressed they've managed to make this much progress -- it's the party's third combat of the day and they were seriously outnumbered: 2 priests, 10 hurricanes, a knight and an initiate (two more initiates are in the stables, guarding the vultures). I've got a band of aarakocra as backup if things take a turn for the worse.
Of course, now they're going to expect to survive deadly encounters on a regular basis. Sigh.
We managed to get through 4 rounds of combat. Since each round had over 20 combatants, that's not too bad. Sadly, 4 hurricanes missed at least one turn because it took me a while to notice that they weren't in the initiative order. Too many moving parts, divided across 2 combats.
Up on the pinnacle, Freyja and Silaqui initially faced 2 hurricanes and a priest, with 2 more hurricanes joining in. One hurricane concentrated on stealing the hippogriff, in order to trap them on the roof. It took three skill checks before he could persuade it to take off. Freyja was occupied with fighting two more. Silaqui softened up the roof party with a few Scorching Ray spells and switched to fighting. She's a bladesinger with an AC of 20 and Freyja is a raging barbarian, so they're actually doing okay -- down to two half-dead hurricanes and a priest, since the hippogriff thief is out of it. The priest is letting the hurricanes handle things. He doesn't have any good ranged attacks, nothing that won't mess up his own guys. If they fall, he'll probably use Gaseous Form to escape to the stables, which have some giant vultures on standby.
The other combat was the frontal assault on the drawbridge. Thoril was the only one in the entry hall; the rest of them were outside using ranged attacks, but Su'uvarax parked his 315 pounds at the end of the drawbridge to keep it open. My strategy here was to get the drawbridge closed again. The downstairs priest cast a Dust Devil on the drawbridge. Thoril decided early on to withdraw but couldn't clear the drawbridge. The hurricanes have tons of movement, so they all popped out, cast Thunderwave, and popped back into hiding. Unfortunately, Thoril fell over from a thunderwave. Then he took damage from yet another Thunderwave (failed death save), rolled badly for a failed death save, and then took damage from the Dust Devil (failed death save). I offered Will a chance to save him, but the concept wasn't working out and he wants to try a samurai instead. Most likely I'll have him looking for the missing delegation, since that element isn't getting much attention yet. It would also be nice to give him a connection to the Knights of Samular, so someone could recognize the lich in the earth temple.
The hurricanes managed to clear the drawbridge and started to raise it. Su'uvarax slowed it by hanging off the end, and then Maendir shot the guy working the gears and it fell back open. Truth ventured inside the tower and Su'uvarax followed him, so the hurricanes started hauling it up again. This is making it hard for the outside group to get lines of attack. Truth got dropped but Liliandra used Healing Word to get him conscious again. She's out of spells, though. Zook used Misty Step to close and then blinded a couple of guys using him Gem of Brightness. Currently the downstairs group has Truth and Su'uvarax, both well below half, inside the drawbridge facing two guys with a handful of HP, one full strength hurricane and a priest who's above half. Zook, Liliandra and Maendir are outside; Zook is undamaged while the other two are down about half.
So things could get dire for the downstairs team, unless Freyja and Silaqui are able to join them in the next round, or they find a way to get the drawbridge back down. It's about halfway closed now, but that's enough to cut off the ranged attacks. Still, I'm impressed they've managed to make this much progress -- it's the party's third combat of the day and they were seriously outnumbered: 2 priests, 10 hurricanes, a knight and an initiate (two more initiates are in the stables, guarding the vultures). I've got a band of aarakocra as backup if things take a turn for the worse.
Of course, now they're going to expect to survive deadly encounters on a regular basis. Sigh.
Thursday, January 5, 2017
PotA Sessions 16 and 17
With holiday travel and other obligations, we wound up missing almost two months. Fortunately we were able to schedule a full-day game on New Year's Day; unfortunately, a couple of players had to leave early for a family issue; fortunately, we were able to schedule the next game for Wednesday 1/4. So two games in rapid succession to get people back into the swing of things.
We started on Sunday with a recap of all the various clues, and the party confirmed that they were heading for the earth people next. Then I promoted everyone to 4th level, granting them 505 XP for story bonus (which I had forgotten about). That got everyone poring over their character sheets again in search of optimization. This was the first time the players had gone through the full leveling process -- their characters in Lost Mine of Phandelver were pregens -- so I explained the three choices: take a level in a new class, 4th level and ability score improvement, 4th level and feat. There was a lot of interest in feats, so it took some time to sort through the various options.
Finally we were ready to play. I summed up the situation in Red Larch with the investigation, and the information about the Believers and the arrival of the priest Larrakh. They wondered if Larrakh was connected to the earth people that the Feathergale Knights wanted them to investigate. Next I had to get a decision of their path to the earth cult -- did they skirt the hills to the south or go through them? That path would determine what they would encounter next. Finally they decided to return to Feathergale Spire and proceed from there to the earth cult.
As a reward, I attacked them with four hell hounds as they were gathering to set out. The encounter took place in the middle of town. Zook had just learned Misty Step and used it to get to the roof of a nearby building; Truth made use of his new Witch Bolt spell to go all Emperor Palpatine; Maendir took advantage of his new Sharpshooter feat to trade 5 from his attack roll to an extra 10 damage. So we got through the hell hounds without too much trouble and the party took a short rest before heading out.
Then we paused for dinner, then I had to populate the response from the restocked Feathergale Spire, and then we had to break early. So we started Wednesday's game right off with a combat, as seven giant vultures and a Hurricane swooped in as they approached the tower. I started the combat with them 300 feet away, which let Maendir show off another aspect of his Sharpshooter feat -- no disadvantage for long range. Freyja had her hippogriff and flew to close, but stuck with throwing a javelin because she's not used to mounted combat.
I had thought about how to handle the hippogriff in flying combat. My decision was that the hippogriff could position itself to allow Freyja to attack, and Freyja would get the opportunity attack as they left, or the hippogriff could attack and take the opportunity attack while Freyja held on. Fortunately, the player didn't have any fantasies about riding a war hippogriff into battle, so I didn't wind up crushing any dreams.
With all the archers and spellcasters, only two vultures managed to close with the party and they were promptly dispatched. The party proceeded to the tower, and a quick scouting by Freyja revealed that it had been reoccupied. Su'uvarax had examined the fallen Hurricane and recognized him as the guy who escaped from their last tower assault, so they figured more Feathergale Knights had reclaimed the tower.
This is where cheaters never prosper: Since they managed to defeat the tower's occupants before, they are confident they can do it again. However, I've restocked the tower mostly with Hurricanes, who are tougher than the Feathergale Knights. The new occupying force is undamaged and had plenty of time to prepare for their arrival. At some point, the party will realize they're outmatched; it's just a question of how deep into the hole they are when that happens.
The plan once again splits the party; they can't seem to resist that. Freyja took Silaqui up on her hippogriff to start at the top of the tower. The rest of the party waited to assault the tower as soon as Su'uvarax lowered the drawbridge. His plan for that: use Mage Hand, which has a range of 30', and his memory of the drawbridge mechanism. It took a few rounds, but he managed to get the drawbridge open. Thoril charged in. The remaining party members weren't interested in closing, although Su'uvarax parked his 300 lbs at the end of the drawbridge.
During the first round, the downstairs attackers faced the last remaining Feathergale Knight, an initiate and two Hurricanes, while the upstairs attackers faced two Hurricanes and a priest. At the end of the round, which was the end of the session, I started adding reinforcements to the initiative order. So it's possible they're going to realize they're outgunned when the next round starts, but given their confidence level, I'm not planning on it. I'm also going to have the top-level attackers try to make off with Freyja's hippogriff, which would leave her and Silaqui stranded on the pinnacle.
The big question now is, when are they going to get that "oh, crap" feeling? I'm going to ready a flight of aarakocra to help them out. My main concern is that they'll figure they can retake the tower with their help, instead of taking the opportunity to run away. I'm going to expose the HP bars of the opponents, which I normally don't do; unless they get very lucky, they'll see their opponents are in no danger of dropping soon. But I might have to capture some people to make the point that not all the battles they run into are winnable.
We started on Sunday with a recap of all the various clues, and the party confirmed that they were heading for the earth people next. Then I promoted everyone to 4th level, granting them 505 XP for story bonus (which I had forgotten about). That got everyone poring over their character sheets again in search of optimization. This was the first time the players had gone through the full leveling process -- their characters in Lost Mine of Phandelver were pregens -- so I explained the three choices: take a level in a new class, 4th level and ability score improvement, 4th level and feat. There was a lot of interest in feats, so it took some time to sort through the various options.
Finally we were ready to play. I summed up the situation in Red Larch with the investigation, and the information about the Believers and the arrival of the priest Larrakh. They wondered if Larrakh was connected to the earth people that the Feathergale Knights wanted them to investigate. Next I had to get a decision of their path to the earth cult -- did they skirt the hills to the south or go through them? That path would determine what they would encounter next. Finally they decided to return to Feathergale Spire and proceed from there to the earth cult.
As a reward, I attacked them with four hell hounds as they were gathering to set out. The encounter took place in the middle of town. Zook had just learned Misty Step and used it to get to the roof of a nearby building; Truth made use of his new Witch Bolt spell to go all Emperor Palpatine; Maendir took advantage of his new Sharpshooter feat to trade 5 from his attack roll to an extra 10 damage. So we got through the hell hounds without too much trouble and the party took a short rest before heading out.
Then we paused for dinner, then I had to populate the response from the restocked Feathergale Spire, and then we had to break early. So we started Wednesday's game right off with a combat, as seven giant vultures and a Hurricane swooped in as they approached the tower. I started the combat with them 300 feet away, which let Maendir show off another aspect of his Sharpshooter feat -- no disadvantage for long range. Freyja had her hippogriff and flew to close, but stuck with throwing a javelin because she's not used to mounted combat.
I had thought about how to handle the hippogriff in flying combat. My decision was that the hippogriff could position itself to allow Freyja to attack, and Freyja would get the opportunity attack as they left, or the hippogriff could attack and take the opportunity attack while Freyja held on. Fortunately, the player didn't have any fantasies about riding a war hippogriff into battle, so I didn't wind up crushing any dreams.
With all the archers and spellcasters, only two vultures managed to close with the party and they were promptly dispatched. The party proceeded to the tower, and a quick scouting by Freyja revealed that it had been reoccupied. Su'uvarax had examined the fallen Hurricane and recognized him as the guy who escaped from their last tower assault, so they figured more Feathergale Knights had reclaimed the tower.
This is where cheaters never prosper: Since they managed to defeat the tower's occupants before, they are confident they can do it again. However, I've restocked the tower mostly with Hurricanes, who are tougher than the Feathergale Knights. The new occupying force is undamaged and had plenty of time to prepare for their arrival. At some point, the party will realize they're outmatched; it's just a question of how deep into the hole they are when that happens.
The plan once again splits the party; they can't seem to resist that. Freyja took Silaqui up on her hippogriff to start at the top of the tower. The rest of the party waited to assault the tower as soon as Su'uvarax lowered the drawbridge. His plan for that: use Mage Hand, which has a range of 30', and his memory of the drawbridge mechanism. It took a few rounds, but he managed to get the drawbridge open. Thoril charged in. The remaining party members weren't interested in closing, although Su'uvarax parked his 300 lbs at the end of the drawbridge.
During the first round, the downstairs attackers faced the last remaining Feathergale Knight, an initiate and two Hurricanes, while the upstairs attackers faced two Hurricanes and a priest. At the end of the round, which was the end of the session, I started adding reinforcements to the initiative order. So it's possible they're going to realize they're outgunned when the next round starts, but given their confidence level, I'm not planning on it. I'm also going to have the top-level attackers try to make off with Freyja's hippogriff, which would leave her and Silaqui stranded on the pinnacle.
The big question now is, when are they going to get that "oh, crap" feeling? I'm going to ready a flight of aarakocra to help them out. My main concern is that they'll figure they can retake the tower with their help, instead of taking the opportunity to run away. I'm going to expose the HP bars of the opponents, which I normally don't do; unless they get very lucky, they'll see their opponents are in no danger of dropping soon. But I might have to capture some people to make the point that not all the battles they run into are winnable.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
PotA Sessions 14 and 15
We had two games in quick succession, so we got through the Tomb of Moving Stones.
The party returns to Red Larch by nightfall. Maendir, Thoril, Freyja and the hippogriff camp southwest of town, while the rest of the party enjoy the comforts of civilization. In the morning, they sell off some feathered cloaks before hearing alarmed shouts -- a sinkhole opens up between some houses and swallows up some playing children. A woman runs out of a nearby house and is also swallowed up.
Naturally, the party investigates, along with assorted townspeople. Thoril anchors a rope around Su'uvarax and climbs down into the hole. He finds the children and mother more or less unharmed on a big pile of dirt in a large cavern. A passage leads north and there's a door to the west. Zook climbs down to investigate. Up top, various bossy townsfolk work on crowd control, and try to shoo everyone away. The party overhears whispers about not letting outsider see anything. Constable Harburk shows up and is buttonholed by the town leaders. After, he joins the party and confides to Su'uvarax that they didn't want him investigating, but he wants to know if anything is going to come out of the hole that would cause trouble.
Once the constable walks off, Su'uvarax "loses his footing" and "falls" into the hole. The rest of the top-side party members quickly follow suit, and get to the business of exploring. The door leads to a sloping corridor. Along the walls, the party finds two bas-relief carvings facing each other; gaps around the carvings suggest doors. They try the south door first; most of the party waits at the intersection while Su'uvarax, Thoril and Zook head south. They find an unused privy. Next they try the north door, which opens on a long corridor that eventually turns east. Freyja and Liliandra hold the intersection and the rest of the party spreads along the hallway to keep the line of contact. Su'uvarax and Thoril find a square chamber with 3 mostly skeletal corpses. The skulls are inscribed with a symbol; Thoril collects a skull for reference.
I thought I would finally get to use the cage traps as the party considered going back to the intersection and proceeding west, but no. Su'uvarax checks the north opening and finds the next room, with the floating rock. The party gathers in the new room and plays with the rock. Eventually they discover that an area of the room had a levitation effect.
Continuing south, they find a large room with a broken statue of a dwarf. Through the west door to complete the circle; this room has a half-orc who protests their presence, and a boy held under a pile of rocks. Some of the party members uncover him and give him water; the boy says his name is Braelen and confesses to being punished for failing to deliver a message. He seems to accept his punishment as appropriate. Meanwhile, the half-orc continues to insist that the party leave. When Su'uvarax goes back to the eastern room, the half-orc attacks him. And then 4 bandits appear in the room (having taken the north loop) and battle is joined.
Liliandra uses Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the half-orc, so he survives, but the bandits do not. Back in the room to the west, Braelen hasn't bothered to stick around.
The party continues eastward and finds a short passage guarded by an old, unarmed man. He promptly collapses and begs them not to hurt him, and also not to disturb the Delvers. They're the ones to excavated these rooms, and they communicate through the stones. He doesn't know anything about the bandits, but there is a priest. Su'uvarax ventures into the next room, promising to be respectful.
This room is very large with a half-dozen stones or stone structures scattered around. Along the walls are six old, dessicated corpses. Near the center of the room is a lit lantern. There's a boom! and Su'uvarax falls over. (Larrakh the priest casts Shatter.)
The party rushes in and fans out in search of Su'uvarax, who is near the back wall. There's some chanting (Larrakh tries to Slow the party but it doesn't take except for Truth, who shakes it off) and Freyja is able to pinpoint a source. As she closes, she hears more sounds in the corner, like a door. But when she gets to the corner, it's just solid rock. Meanwhile, party members converge on Su'uvarax and restore him to consciousness. The whole party searches for a hidden door, and it takes a while before they find it. There's a passage which looks like it recently had a partial cave-in, so they have to move carefully past it. They emerge in the yard of Waelvur's Wagonworks. Thoril finds tracks heading north, but they merge into general town traffic. The wagon workers didn't see anything, so the party goes back underground.
They go back along the whole set of rooms without finding any more secret doors, and return to the cavern that was opened by the sinkhole. That leaves the passage heading north, which ends at an opening in the quarry. Freyja has to go deal with her hippogriff, which is NOT pleased about being left tied up. The party figures they'll pretend to leave town and arrange a meeting with the constable. However, he finds them first. He wants to go check out the tunnels himself. Freyja agrees to keep watch on the various entrances from the air, which makes the hippogriff happy.
Constable Harburk recognizes the bandits; they were staying at the boarding house. He also knows Grund the half-orc and Braelen the bad messenger and old Baragustas the cowardly doorkeeper. He doesn't know anything about the Delvers. The party helps him recover all the corpses, which are collected in a cart by the sinkhole. Freyja reports that some people went into the tunnel at the wagonworks; the party didn't run into them.
The next step is to interrogate Grund, Braelen and Baragustus. Truth and Thoril accompany the trustee who's retrieving Grund. He's at the town marketplace, tending his pickles. He becomes agitated when approached. Thoril buys some pickles and everyone has a snack, which calms him down. They ask about the Delvers and Grund rattles off a bunch of names, which Truth notes. He agrees to go talk to Harburk.
So now I have to study up on the town and figure out what happens next. Since Larrakh escaped, Harburk can send the party to retrieve him while he deals with events in town. After that, it's the hell hounds, which would be more fun in town than in the wilderness. And then we'll have to see. It looks like we won't be playing again until after the holidays, possibly a full day game on New Years.
The party returns to Red Larch by nightfall. Maendir, Thoril, Freyja and the hippogriff camp southwest of town, while the rest of the party enjoy the comforts of civilization. In the morning, they sell off some feathered cloaks before hearing alarmed shouts -- a sinkhole opens up between some houses and swallows up some playing children. A woman runs out of a nearby house and is also swallowed up.
Naturally, the party investigates, along with assorted townspeople. Thoril anchors a rope around Su'uvarax and climbs down into the hole. He finds the children and mother more or less unharmed on a big pile of dirt in a large cavern. A passage leads north and there's a door to the west. Zook climbs down to investigate. Up top, various bossy townsfolk work on crowd control, and try to shoo everyone away. The party overhears whispers about not letting outsider see anything. Constable Harburk shows up and is buttonholed by the town leaders. After, he joins the party and confides to Su'uvarax that they didn't want him investigating, but he wants to know if anything is going to come out of the hole that would cause trouble.
Once the constable walks off, Su'uvarax "loses his footing" and "falls" into the hole. The rest of the top-side party members quickly follow suit, and get to the business of exploring. The door leads to a sloping corridor. Along the walls, the party finds two bas-relief carvings facing each other; gaps around the carvings suggest doors. They try the south door first; most of the party waits at the intersection while Su'uvarax, Thoril and Zook head south. They find an unused privy. Next they try the north door, which opens on a long corridor that eventually turns east. Freyja and Liliandra hold the intersection and the rest of the party spreads along the hallway to keep the line of contact. Su'uvarax and Thoril find a square chamber with 3 mostly skeletal corpses. The skulls are inscribed with a symbol; Thoril collects a skull for reference.
I thought I would finally get to use the cage traps as the party considered going back to the intersection and proceeding west, but no. Su'uvarax checks the north opening and finds the next room, with the floating rock. The party gathers in the new room and plays with the rock. Eventually they discover that an area of the room had a levitation effect.
Continuing south, they find a large room with a broken statue of a dwarf. Through the west door to complete the circle; this room has a half-orc who protests their presence, and a boy held under a pile of rocks. Some of the party members uncover him and give him water; the boy says his name is Braelen and confesses to being punished for failing to deliver a message. He seems to accept his punishment as appropriate. Meanwhile, the half-orc continues to insist that the party leave. When Su'uvarax goes back to the eastern room, the half-orc attacks him. And then 4 bandits appear in the room (having taken the north loop) and battle is joined.
Liliandra uses Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the half-orc, so he survives, but the bandits do not. Back in the room to the west, Braelen hasn't bothered to stick around.
The party continues eastward and finds a short passage guarded by an old, unarmed man. He promptly collapses and begs them not to hurt him, and also not to disturb the Delvers. They're the ones to excavated these rooms, and they communicate through the stones. He doesn't know anything about the bandits, but there is a priest. Su'uvarax ventures into the next room, promising to be respectful.
This room is very large with a half-dozen stones or stone structures scattered around. Along the walls are six old, dessicated corpses. Near the center of the room is a lit lantern. There's a boom! and Su'uvarax falls over. (Larrakh the priest casts Shatter.)
The party rushes in and fans out in search of Su'uvarax, who is near the back wall. There's some chanting (Larrakh tries to Slow the party but it doesn't take except for Truth, who shakes it off) and Freyja is able to pinpoint a source. As she closes, she hears more sounds in the corner, like a door. But when she gets to the corner, it's just solid rock. Meanwhile, party members converge on Su'uvarax and restore him to consciousness. The whole party searches for a hidden door, and it takes a while before they find it. There's a passage which looks like it recently had a partial cave-in, so they have to move carefully past it. They emerge in the yard of Waelvur's Wagonworks. Thoril finds tracks heading north, but they merge into general town traffic. The wagon workers didn't see anything, so the party goes back underground.
They go back along the whole set of rooms without finding any more secret doors, and return to the cavern that was opened by the sinkhole. That leaves the passage heading north, which ends at an opening in the quarry. Freyja has to go deal with her hippogriff, which is NOT pleased about being left tied up. The party figures they'll pretend to leave town and arrange a meeting with the constable. However, he finds them first. He wants to go check out the tunnels himself. Freyja agrees to keep watch on the various entrances from the air, which makes the hippogriff happy.
Constable Harburk recognizes the bandits; they were staying at the boarding house. He also knows Grund the half-orc and Braelen the bad messenger and old Baragustas the cowardly doorkeeper. He doesn't know anything about the Delvers. The party helps him recover all the corpses, which are collected in a cart by the sinkhole. Freyja reports that some people went into the tunnel at the wagonworks; the party didn't run into them.
The next step is to interrogate Grund, Braelen and Baragustus. Truth and Thoril accompany the trustee who's retrieving Grund. He's at the town marketplace, tending his pickles. He becomes agitated when approached. Thoril buys some pickles and everyone has a snack, which calms him down. They ask about the Delvers and Grund rattles off a bunch of names, which Truth notes. He agrees to go talk to Harburk.
So now I have to study up on the town and figure out what happens next. Since Larrakh escaped, Harburk can send the party to retrieve him while he deals with events in town. After that, it's the hell hounds, which would be more fun in town than in the wilderness. And then we'll have to see. It looks like we won't be playing again until after the holidays, possibly a full day game on New Years.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
PotA Session 13
Naturally, Freyja wants a hippogriff.
The party looted and searched. Maendir and Zook had Merosska's room, and Maendir went straight for the desk, so he found the letter from Aerisi regarding the noblewoman from Waterdeep that they took from the Black Earth cult. Since Hazel the rescued halfling was from Waterdeep, this led to some speculation that the letter referred to her, in the absence of any noblewoman on the premises. Liliandra mentioned that the delegation from Mirabar included a noblewoman from Waterdeep, which seemed to put the question to rest.
Hazel told them how the air cult threw people off the roof to sacrifice them to the air, sparing her only so she could cook for their upcoming feast. Freyja and Thoril flew down to the base of the tower and found the grisly remains confirming her story. Hazel also described how some of cultists would breathe steam, trying to "become one with the air." No one knew what to do with that.
There had been some discussion about occupying the keep, but Hazel's story got them to think about destroying it. Unfortunately, it was too solidly built for easy vandalism, so they had to put that idea aside. So no long-term plans at this point, but they decided to return Hazel to Red Larch so she could go home.
Before they left, they released most of the hippogriffs to the wild, but Freyja decided to keep one. The rest of the party is not so enthusiastic about the addition, but Freyja is impervious to hints, and no one was in a position to forbid her.
Along the way, the party was attacked by a couple of ankhegs, one of the reprisal options. I considered hell hounds but ankhegs seemed a better choice given the timing and environment. The problem is that they have a lot of clues pointing them to the earth temple, but the next temple in terms of difficulty is the water temple. Also, they're still 3rd level because I'm having trouble compensating for the size of the group. It would be good to get them to 4th level before the next temple. I'm okay with them going to the earth temple next. It's possible they would come across the water temple if they travel south around the hills toward the earth temple, but there are clues there to send them to the water temple if they go to the Stone Monastery directly.
Since they're in town, I'm going to do the Tomb of Moving Stones next. If nothing else, it will show Freyja that hippogriffs are not always a practical choice for companion. I upgraded the Bringers of Woe to bandit captains, added the Sentinel feat and cut their hit points by 10. I'll start with 4 of them and add one or two more if the fight is going well. Otherwise, I can give Larrakh a couple of guards. After that, I'll hit them with 4 hell hounds, and that should get them to 4th level.
The party looted and searched. Maendir and Zook had Merosska's room, and Maendir went straight for the desk, so he found the letter from Aerisi regarding the noblewoman from Waterdeep that they took from the Black Earth cult. Since Hazel the rescued halfling was from Waterdeep, this led to some speculation that the letter referred to her, in the absence of any noblewoman on the premises. Liliandra mentioned that the delegation from Mirabar included a noblewoman from Waterdeep, which seemed to put the question to rest.
Hazel told them how the air cult threw people off the roof to sacrifice them to the air, sparing her only so she could cook for their upcoming feast. Freyja and Thoril flew down to the base of the tower and found the grisly remains confirming her story. Hazel also described how some of cultists would breathe steam, trying to "become one with the air." No one knew what to do with that.
There had been some discussion about occupying the keep, but Hazel's story got them to think about destroying it. Unfortunately, it was too solidly built for easy vandalism, so they had to put that idea aside. So no long-term plans at this point, but they decided to return Hazel to Red Larch so she could go home.
Before they left, they released most of the hippogriffs to the wild, but Freyja decided to keep one. The rest of the party is not so enthusiastic about the addition, but Freyja is impervious to hints, and no one was in a position to forbid her.
Along the way, the party was attacked by a couple of ankhegs, one of the reprisal options. I considered hell hounds but ankhegs seemed a better choice given the timing and environment. The problem is that they have a lot of clues pointing them to the earth temple, but the next temple in terms of difficulty is the water temple. Also, they're still 3rd level because I'm having trouble compensating for the size of the group. It would be good to get them to 4th level before the next temple. I'm okay with them going to the earth temple next. It's possible they would come across the water temple if they travel south around the hills toward the earth temple, but there are clues there to send them to the water temple if they go to the Stone Monastery directly.
Since they're in town, I'm going to do the Tomb of Moving Stones next. If nothing else, it will show Freyja that hippogriffs are not always a practical choice for companion. I upgraded the Bringers of Woe to bandit captains, added the Sentinel feat and cut their hit points by 10. I'll start with 4 of them and add one or two more if the fight is going well. Otherwise, I can give Larrakh a couple of guards. After that, I'll hit them with 4 hell hounds, and that should get them to 4th level.
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