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.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
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.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
PotA Sessions 11 and 12
We played two weeks in a row this month, which was handy for finishing the Battle of Feathergale Keep. The party wound up taking on the entire tower during the day, which was a deadly encounter even for a party of 8. I played it pretty straight for the first session but wound up pulling my punches during the second session because a TPK would violate the social contract.
We left off with the party separated. Su'uvarax was on the ground floor in the conservatory, with Hazel the captive halfing, Merosska, an initiate and the hurricane. He had cast Darkness to protect himself (since he could still see through it). In the great hall, the rest of the party had defeated an initiate and a knight, while another knight jumped out the window.
After making his way out of the dark to the central stair, Merosska organized the defenses. He placed three initiates and a knight in the foyer, to block the exit. Three more initiates took position in the kitchen, in case Su'uvarax tried to escape that way. He sent the last initiate to the stables, where most of the knights were gathered. Two were delegated to go up the stairs to the party; the rest mounted their vultures to fly to the roof and come down the stairs. Merosska positioned himself at the base of the stairs.
In the great hall, Freyja threw a mounted head after the knight who jumped out, but missed. Liliandra tied her rope around the foot of the table so Freyja could pursue. The rest of the party started dealing with the two knights who came up the stairs, although Truth took a moment to give Thoril a little healing -- the initiates were surprisingly effective with their little daggers.
Freyja and Liliandra climbed down the rope. The four mounted knights in the stable took off for the roof and the fleeing knight headed into the stable. Freyja pursued, arriving as he took off on his vulture, so she commandeered a hippogriff and went after him. Liliandra wasn't interested in flying, so she looked in the windows of the conservatory, where the rumbles of thunder had been heard. At the first window, she just saw a blob of unnatural darkness. When she arrived at the second window, the darkness was gone -- the hurricane's Thunderwave had disrupted Su'uvarax's concentration on his Darkness. Once Su'uvarax was visible, the initiate stabbed him and then the hurricane punched him unconscious. Liliandra cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter at the hurricane, but he saved, so she had to climb into the room and fight him.
Upstairs the bulk of the party was rolling poorly against their knights. Maendir chose to Dodge past the knights, only to find himself facing Merosska. They exchanged blows and discovered that Merosska hit harder. We ended the session with the party in a difficult situation.
During the interval, I trimmed the knights' HP by 6 and Merosska's by 11. I wound up having them attack once instead of twice a round, which made the fights more balanced. I also reviewed the party's resources and came up with some ideas to deal with Merosska. As for the knights, we were about to get Freyja back into combat, so that would probably give the party some traction. Starting out, I let a couple of close misses hit, just to move things along, but once the party got some momentum, I backed that off.
Downstairs, Liliandra used Healing Word to bring Su'uvarax around. He fried the initiate with an Eldritch Blast and closed the door to the stairwell, leaving just the hurricane as an opponent. Hazel aided Liliandra by throwing things at him, but it turned out that Liliandra didn't need advantage -- she rolled a critical hit and dispatched him. Hazel shoved a table across the door to the kitchen, so no reinforcements from there. Meanwhile, Merosska knocked out Maendir.
In the great hall, the group managed to drop a couple of knights. Truth took advantage of the gap to move down the stairs and send a Fire Bolt after Merosska. Su'uvarax moved into the central stair room and hit Merosska with an Eldritch Blast for a little damage, but he had plenty of HP in reserve. He stepped out of the stairwell and Truth's line of sight, and told Su'uvarax if he surrendered, "We won't kill all of you."
This is where Plan Turning Point came into effect. Liliandra cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on Merosska. When he saved, I let her use Cutting Words to reduce his save (technically illegal). So Merosska was temporarily out of the picture. I was hoping the downstairs people would take the opportunity to rejoin the upstairs people, but no. They wanted to finish off Merosska. Fortunately, they came up with the idea of disarming him and tying him up before collectively beating on him. Liliandra got Maendir conscious and he healed himself a bit. Su'uvarax found the three initiates in the kitchen, confused by the laughter, and intimidated them into staying put. Hazel escaped upstairs with Merosska's great sword, Liliandra handled the rope, Maendir and Su'uvarax got ready to attack if Merosska stopped laughing. Which he did, but he was prone and tied. Acouple of readied actions, and then a bunch of regular attacks, and Merosska had 3 HP left when his turn came around again. He had Misty Step, but he could only jump to a point he could see. So I sent him down the stairs.
Meanwhile, four knights had landed on the roof. Two made it down to the first floor and engaged the group in the stairwell outside the great hall; two more lurked on the second floor. The knight who jumped out the window arrived on the roof, followed by Freyja. Once they started fighting, one of the lurkers headed up and the other headed down to fill in for a fallen comrade. In the hall, Zook ran out of spells, switched to his crossbow and finished off a couple of battered knights. Silaqui was bladesinging but rolling terribly, so she started using Thunderwave. Thoril happily stabbed away and they made their way through the pile of knights. Silaqui cast Thunderwave on the last one and pushed him back 10' into the wall, so I rolled a d6 for damage -- 6 points, which killed him. This left Thoril free to head downstairs, while Zook and Silaqui went upstairs.
Truth pursued Merosska and found him crawling down the stairs. He stabbed him with a rapier, but only did 2 points of damage, so Merosska was clinging to life. The initiate downstairs pulled him away and Truth missed the opportunity attack. But then Su'uvarax ran downstairs and fried him with an Eldritch Blast. Thoril arrived to find Merosska dead and had to content himself with squishing the initiate. Maendir arrived to find everyone dead, so he went back upstairs. Truth, Thoril and Su'uvarax did some searching and looting.
On the roof, Zook strategized with Silaqui on how to help Freyja, but she finished off her second opponent before they could act, and collected a wristband as a trophy. Then she climbed aboard her trusty hippogriff to find more prey.
Liliandra had been left on the ground floor. Since it had been quiet for a couple of rounds, the three initiates in the kitchen emerged. I gave them Insight checks to read her body language; one realized that the jig was up and ran to join the group in the entry; one closed with Liliandra but missed; one started to circle around the stairs to get her from behind, ran into Maendir and stabbed him. Liliandra dispatched her attacker and Su'uvarax arrived to dispatch the other.
Truth came upstairs to find the drawbridge down and the door guard running away. He and Su'uvarax sent some long-range spells after them. The circling vultures landed to pick up their passengers. Freyja flew her hippogriff into one of them. The guard and four initiates mounted the remaining five vultures and escaped while Freyja's hippogriff finished off the vulture. Truth and Su'uvarax fired parting shots but didn't manage to bring anyone down.
Between them, Silaqui and Maendir made sure the rest of the tower was clear. Next week, we start with the searching and looting and discoveries and explanations.
And that is the story of how I cheated at D&D.
We left off with the party separated. Su'uvarax was on the ground floor in the conservatory, with Hazel the captive halfing, Merosska, an initiate and the hurricane. He had cast Darkness to protect himself (since he could still see through it). In the great hall, the rest of the party had defeated an initiate and a knight, while another knight jumped out the window.
After making his way out of the dark to the central stair, Merosska organized the defenses. He placed three initiates and a knight in the foyer, to block the exit. Three more initiates took position in the kitchen, in case Su'uvarax tried to escape that way. He sent the last initiate to the stables, where most of the knights were gathered. Two were delegated to go up the stairs to the party; the rest mounted their vultures to fly to the roof and come down the stairs. Merosska positioned himself at the base of the stairs.
In the great hall, Freyja threw a mounted head after the knight who jumped out, but missed. Liliandra tied her rope around the foot of the table so Freyja could pursue. The rest of the party started dealing with the two knights who came up the stairs, although Truth took a moment to give Thoril a little healing -- the initiates were surprisingly effective with their little daggers.
Freyja and Liliandra climbed down the rope. The four mounted knights in the stable took off for the roof and the fleeing knight headed into the stable. Freyja pursued, arriving as he took off on his vulture, so she commandeered a hippogriff and went after him. Liliandra wasn't interested in flying, so she looked in the windows of the conservatory, where the rumbles of thunder had been heard. At the first window, she just saw a blob of unnatural darkness. When she arrived at the second window, the darkness was gone -- the hurricane's Thunderwave had disrupted Su'uvarax's concentration on his Darkness. Once Su'uvarax was visible, the initiate stabbed him and then the hurricane punched him unconscious. Liliandra cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter at the hurricane, but he saved, so she had to climb into the room and fight him.
Upstairs the bulk of the party was rolling poorly against their knights. Maendir chose to Dodge past the knights, only to find himself facing Merosska. They exchanged blows and discovered that Merosska hit harder. We ended the session with the party in a difficult situation.
During the interval, I trimmed the knights' HP by 6 and Merosska's by 11. I wound up having them attack once instead of twice a round, which made the fights more balanced. I also reviewed the party's resources and came up with some ideas to deal with Merosska. As for the knights, we were about to get Freyja back into combat, so that would probably give the party some traction. Starting out, I let a couple of close misses hit, just to move things along, but once the party got some momentum, I backed that off.
Downstairs, Liliandra used Healing Word to bring Su'uvarax around. He fried the initiate with an Eldritch Blast and closed the door to the stairwell, leaving just the hurricane as an opponent. Hazel aided Liliandra by throwing things at him, but it turned out that Liliandra didn't need advantage -- she rolled a critical hit and dispatched him. Hazel shoved a table across the door to the kitchen, so no reinforcements from there. Meanwhile, Merosska knocked out Maendir.
In the great hall, the group managed to drop a couple of knights. Truth took advantage of the gap to move down the stairs and send a Fire Bolt after Merosska. Su'uvarax moved into the central stair room and hit Merosska with an Eldritch Blast for a little damage, but he had plenty of HP in reserve. He stepped out of the stairwell and Truth's line of sight, and told Su'uvarax if he surrendered, "We won't kill all of you."
This is where Plan Turning Point came into effect. Liliandra cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on Merosska. When he saved, I let her use Cutting Words to reduce his save (technically illegal). So Merosska was temporarily out of the picture. I was hoping the downstairs people would take the opportunity to rejoin the upstairs people, but no. They wanted to finish off Merosska. Fortunately, they came up with the idea of disarming him and tying him up before collectively beating on him. Liliandra got Maendir conscious and he healed himself a bit. Su'uvarax found the three initiates in the kitchen, confused by the laughter, and intimidated them into staying put. Hazel escaped upstairs with Merosska's great sword, Liliandra handled the rope, Maendir and Su'uvarax got ready to attack if Merosska stopped laughing. Which he did, but he was prone and tied. Acouple of readied actions, and then a bunch of regular attacks, and Merosska had 3 HP left when his turn came around again. He had Misty Step, but he could only jump to a point he could see. So I sent him down the stairs.
Meanwhile, four knights had landed on the roof. Two made it down to the first floor and engaged the group in the stairwell outside the great hall; two more lurked on the second floor. The knight who jumped out the window arrived on the roof, followed by Freyja. Once they started fighting, one of the lurkers headed up and the other headed down to fill in for a fallen comrade. In the hall, Zook ran out of spells, switched to his crossbow and finished off a couple of battered knights. Silaqui was bladesinging but rolling terribly, so she started using Thunderwave. Thoril happily stabbed away and they made their way through the pile of knights. Silaqui cast Thunderwave on the last one and pushed him back 10' into the wall, so I rolled a d6 for damage -- 6 points, which killed him. This left Thoril free to head downstairs, while Zook and Silaqui went upstairs.
Truth pursued Merosska and found him crawling down the stairs. He stabbed him with a rapier, but only did 2 points of damage, so Merosska was clinging to life. The initiate downstairs pulled him away and Truth missed the opportunity attack. But then Su'uvarax ran downstairs and fried him with an Eldritch Blast. Thoril arrived to find Merosska dead and had to content himself with squishing the initiate. Maendir arrived to find everyone dead, so he went back upstairs. Truth, Thoril and Su'uvarax did some searching and looting.
On the roof, Zook strategized with Silaqui on how to help Freyja, but she finished off her second opponent before they could act, and collected a wristband as a trophy. Then she climbed aboard her trusty hippogriff to find more prey.
Liliandra had been left on the ground floor. Since it had been quiet for a couple of rounds, the three initiates in the kitchen emerged. I gave them Insight checks to read her body language; one realized that the jig was up and ran to join the group in the entry; one closed with Liliandra but missed; one started to circle around the stairs to get her from behind, ran into Maendir and stabbed him. Liliandra dispatched her attacker and Su'uvarax arrived to dispatch the other.
Truth came upstairs to find the drawbridge down and the door guard running away. He and Su'uvarax sent some long-range spells after them. The circling vultures landed to pick up their passengers. Freyja flew her hippogriff into one of them. The guard and four initiates mounted the remaining five vultures and escaped while Freyja's hippogriff finished off the vulture. Truth and Su'uvarax fired parting shots but didn't manage to bring anyone down.
Between them, Silaqui and Maendir made sure the rest of the tower was clear. Next week, we start with the searching and looting and discoveries and explanations.
And that is the story of how I cheated at D&D.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
PotA Session 10
In the morning, Su'uvarax finally confronted Merosska about the halfling woman and the evidence of the caravan attack, and demanded to speak to Hazel. Merosska claimed that his knights found the remains of the caravan during a patrol, and they rescued the halfling who was wandering the area. He wouldn't dream of subjecting her to an interrogation without her agreement. He then went off to talk to her. When he came back, he accompanied Su'uvarax to the greenhouse room, where Hazel and the hurricane waited.
After they left, Truth tried to follow, saying he needed to tell Su'uvarax something, but the initiate at the top of the stairs told him he had to stay in the great hall. Thoril had enough standing around and took a swing at him, but missed. Maendir took the precaution of spiking a bedroom door, in case someone came out to surprise them, and Zook hid in another bedroom. The others more or less lined up with the two knights in the hall, but didn't actually swing. The initiate managed to stab Thoril with a dagger and run down the stairs, yelling. Su'uvarax excused himself politely, came upstairs and yelled at them to behave. He then charged Truth with keeping Thoril in line, leaving Thoril feeling very put upon. So no battle yet.
Su'uvarax returned to the greenhouse. Hazel was watering plants, not meeting anyone's eyes and giving terse answers, but going along with Merosska's party line. However, Su'uvarax used Awakened Mind to let her know he was here to help, and asked to her spill water if she needed help. She promptly did. Su'uvarax used his Sending Stone to tell Silaqui that they needed to rescue Hazel. This raised the question: can you send a message without speaking out loud? The recipient hears it in their head, but does the sender need to speak? It isn't spelled out in the spell description, and strangely has not been argued to death on the Internet. In the end, I went with silent mode.
Upstairs in the great hall, Silaqui told the party that Su'uvarax said wanted them to join him, but they needed to clean up first. Finally, the party started rolling well for Insight and got the message, so they weren't caught flat-footed when Silaqui launched her attack on one of the knights. In the end, one knight went down but the other was able to jump out a window before he could be killed; he joins his comrades in the stables. Some of them will be heading up the spiral stairs while others will fly to the roof and come down from the top.
Down in the greenhouse, Su'uvarax cast Darkness, which protected him from attack, and Hazel took the opportunity to hide. Merosska made his way out of the darkness, and out of the room. He's in position to hold the staircase. The hurricane cast Thunderwave since he couldn't close with Su'uvarax.
That's as far as we got with the battle, so we'll have to see how things develop. The tower architecture is really the defining element, with the central staircase and the opposing sides on different floors. Team Feathergale has the advantage of mobility, so we'll see if the party can avoid getting gridlocked on the stairs.
After they left, Truth tried to follow, saying he needed to tell Su'uvarax something, but the initiate at the top of the stairs told him he had to stay in the great hall. Thoril had enough standing around and took a swing at him, but missed. Maendir took the precaution of spiking a bedroom door, in case someone came out to surprise them, and Zook hid in another bedroom. The others more or less lined up with the two knights in the hall, but didn't actually swing. The initiate managed to stab Thoril with a dagger and run down the stairs, yelling. Su'uvarax excused himself politely, came upstairs and yelled at them to behave. He then charged Truth with keeping Thoril in line, leaving Thoril feeling very put upon. So no battle yet.
Su'uvarax returned to the greenhouse. Hazel was watering plants, not meeting anyone's eyes and giving terse answers, but going along with Merosska's party line. However, Su'uvarax used Awakened Mind to let her know he was here to help, and asked to her spill water if she needed help. She promptly did. Su'uvarax used his Sending Stone to tell Silaqui that they needed to rescue Hazel. This raised the question: can you send a message without speaking out loud? The recipient hears it in their head, but does the sender need to speak? It isn't spelled out in the spell description, and strangely has not been argued to death on the Internet. In the end, I went with silent mode.
Upstairs in the great hall, Silaqui told the party that Su'uvarax said wanted them to join him, but they needed to clean up first. Finally, the party started rolling well for Insight and got the message, so they weren't caught flat-footed when Silaqui launched her attack on one of the knights. In the end, one knight went down but the other was able to jump out a window before he could be killed; he joins his comrades in the stables. Some of them will be heading up the spiral stairs while others will fly to the roof and come down from the top.
Down in the greenhouse, Su'uvarax cast Darkness, which protected him from attack, and Hazel took the opportunity to hide. Merosska made his way out of the darkness, and out of the room. He's in position to hold the staircase. The hurricane cast Thunderwave since he couldn't close with Su'uvarax.
That's as far as we got with the battle, so we'll have to see how things develop. The tower architecture is really the defining element, with the central staircase and the opposing sides on different floors. Team Feathergale has the advantage of mobility, so we'll see if the party can avoid getting gridlocked on the stairs.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
PotA Session 9
The anniversary feast of the Feathergale Knights wound down, and the party promptly demonstrated its propensity for splitting up. Truth and Maendir camped on the roof level; Zook, Su'uvarax, Silaqui and Liliandra took bedrooms; Freyja and Thoril camped outside on the edge of the canyon. If the knights had been inclined to turn on the party, they would have been in trouble. Fortunately, the knights think they will be better used to mess with the earth cult.
The dice took a dim view of people sleeping outside a perfectly defensible tower, so Thoril and Freyja had a quick fight with three gnolls. Freyja was somewhat encumbered by not being able to see in the dark, but fortunately charged off in the right direction and ran across an attacker. Once the matter was resolved, one of the sentries arrived to check on things (it's not like the gnolls presented any threat to the tower), leaving Thoril increasing disgusted with their uselessness in battle.
The bedroom team exchanged information and decided that Something was Up with this halfling woman in the kitchens. Silaqui and Liliandra decided to sneak down to the kitchen to talk to her. On the ground level, they had three doors to choose from. Silaqui fumbled her roll to stealthily open the chosen door, which belonged to the initiate dormitory. They were discovered by the hall guard, not to mention all the initiates. Silaqui claimed they were looking for a drink of water, and Liliandra wondered if they could present their compliments on the feast to the chef. They were shooed back upstairs.
In the morning, Merosska was ready to send the party on its way, preferably to the Sacred Stone Monastery. They had to stall by taking their time assembling the party and their gear. Silaqui remembered to prepare Invisibility; in the general confusion she cast it on herself and snuck downstairs again. This time she found the kitchen, where the halfling woman and various initiates were working. She turned visible in the hall and stepped inside, on the pretense of looking for provisions for the road. Then she said that the woman looked familiar and asked if they had met; the woman refused to look at her and said she was mistaken. This is when disappointing Insight rolls became a running theme. Silaqui got shooed back upstairs.
In the meantime, Freyja was downstairs with the hippogriffs and will need to be pried away.
At this point, the players discussed how to proceed -- do they go away and try to find out more about these knights and this halfling, or do they confront the knights? (At one point, someone speculated that the halfling was a plant working for the knights to take out caravans, which was an unexpected turn.) Two points seem to have tipped the consensus to confrontation: first, it will be difficult to get back into the tower once they leave; second, since they were clearly interested in talking to her, the woman might not be available when they came back. Also, Thoril is getting tired of all the talking and wants to hit someone.
Fortunately, the schedule worked out so the next session is just a week later, so hopefully we can transition from planning right into action. I've worked out positions for the NPCs, based on the idea that they'd like to get the party outside of the tower, which allows them to use their mounts in combat. The central spiral staircase is a good place for Merosska to hold, so they can't spread upwards, and most of the knights are on the stable level with their mounts. So the main question is whether the party will descend to the drawbridge level before the fight starts.
The dice took a dim view of people sleeping outside a perfectly defensible tower, so Thoril and Freyja had a quick fight with three gnolls. Freyja was somewhat encumbered by not being able to see in the dark, but fortunately charged off in the right direction and ran across an attacker. Once the matter was resolved, one of the sentries arrived to check on things (it's not like the gnolls presented any threat to the tower), leaving Thoril increasing disgusted with their uselessness in battle.
The bedroom team exchanged information and decided that Something was Up with this halfling woman in the kitchens. Silaqui and Liliandra decided to sneak down to the kitchen to talk to her. On the ground level, they had three doors to choose from. Silaqui fumbled her roll to stealthily open the chosen door, which belonged to the initiate dormitory. They were discovered by the hall guard, not to mention all the initiates. Silaqui claimed they were looking for a drink of water, and Liliandra wondered if they could present their compliments on the feast to the chef. They were shooed back upstairs.
In the morning, Merosska was ready to send the party on its way, preferably to the Sacred Stone Monastery. They had to stall by taking their time assembling the party and their gear. Silaqui remembered to prepare Invisibility; in the general confusion she cast it on herself and snuck downstairs again. This time she found the kitchen, where the halfling woman and various initiates were working. She turned visible in the hall and stepped inside, on the pretense of looking for provisions for the road. Then she said that the woman looked familiar and asked if they had met; the woman refused to look at her and said she was mistaken. This is when disappointing Insight rolls became a running theme. Silaqui got shooed back upstairs.
In the meantime, Freyja was downstairs with the hippogriffs and will need to be pried away.
At this point, the players discussed how to proceed -- do they go away and try to find out more about these knights and this halfling, or do they confront the knights? (At one point, someone speculated that the halfling was a plant working for the knights to take out caravans, which was an unexpected turn.) Two points seem to have tipped the consensus to confrontation: first, it will be difficult to get back into the tower once they leave; second, since they were clearly interested in talking to her, the woman might not be available when they came back. Also, Thoril is getting tired of all the talking and wants to hit someone.
Fortunately, the schedule worked out so the next session is just a week later, so hopefully we can transition from planning right into action. I've worked out positions for the NPCs, based on the idea that they'd like to get the party outside of the tower, which allows them to use their mounts in combat. The central spiral staircase is a good place for Merosska to hold, so they can't spread upwards, and most of the knights are on the stable level with their mounts. So the main question is whether the party will descend to the drawbridge level before the fight starts.
Monday, August 1, 2016
PotA Session 8
Summer is still making it hard to get into the twice-a-month schedule.
I skipped the Tomb of the Moving Stones so there was nothing to stop the group from proceeding to Feathergale Spire. I described how the tower rose up from a canyon, and offered them the choice of heading to the base or staying along the edge of the canyon; they opted for up on the ridge, so they arrived at the front door. Then they were polite about seeking entry, so they got to meet the Feathergale Knights on good terms and visit the rooftop.
The sentries on the roof were accompanied by their giant vultures, which put Freyja on guard, but she didn't do anything overt. Su'uvarax asked about the odd phenomena, but Merosska disclaimed much knowledge. He did point the party toward the Sacred Stone Monastery as people who were probably up to no good.
Not everyone stayed on the roof. In the hall, Maendir and Zook observed the preparations for the feast. As the kitchen staff started bringing up food, Maendir recognized a halfling woman from his caravan from Phandalin to Triboar; this caravan continued south immediately and the party found the remains where it had later been attacked. Maendir spoke to Zook quietly but again avoided any overt action. Zook flubbed his Insight check and didn't notice how scared/nervous she was.
During the feast, Su'uvarax asked Merosska a leading question while Truth cast Detect Thoughts on him. Truth read: He feels smug, they don't know anything, it will be fun to set them on those earth dolts. Truth was not very subtle in his casting; Merosska didn't notice but some of the knights did.
We finished up with the manticore hunt, which is perhaps more intriguing in theory than in practice. Freyja, Thoril, Silaqui and Truth took part. The manticore rolled like a champ against the attackers's mounts and forced the knights to withdraw pretty quickly. Truth used some healing spells to keep himself and Thoril in the chase a little longer, but the manticore rolled more consistently and escaped.
I'm still wrestling with the nature of the air cult. The knights are described as law-and-order types who have been seduced by having the power to act against enemies of peace, but Aerisi is spoiled and self-delusional. I'm tending toward the more childish side, people who feel special and entitled and thwarted, who construct fantasies of revenge. However, this could be wasted effort -- does the party really need to understand the nature of the cult? Or is it enough for them to get in a fight?
So I have a couple of conversations planned that might be set aside in the end. Being into birds, Freyja helped out with the injured mounts. So there's an opportunity for one of the knights to see if she could be recruited, and introduce the idea of seeking power to avenge herself on her oppressors (in Freyja's case, her backstory is that her brother's wife is trying to have her shunted into a more traditional woman's role in the tribe). I think Merosska would feel out Su'uvarax as a possible recruit, and he'd have an eye on the bard for Aerisi.
The big question is whether the air cult would decide to try to sacrifice the party, and I think they'd find it more entertaining to use them against the earth cult first, with the thought of either recruiting or sacrificing the survivors. But the knights are feeling a little suspicious and could tip over to sacrificing if they seem nosy. The likeliest goad to a confrontation will be the party trying to investigate this halfling spice merchant in the air cult's kitchens. So I'm waiting to see what the party does next.
I skipped the Tomb of the Moving Stones so there was nothing to stop the group from proceeding to Feathergale Spire. I described how the tower rose up from a canyon, and offered them the choice of heading to the base or staying along the edge of the canyon; they opted for up on the ridge, so they arrived at the front door. Then they were polite about seeking entry, so they got to meet the Feathergale Knights on good terms and visit the rooftop.
The sentries on the roof were accompanied by their giant vultures, which put Freyja on guard, but she didn't do anything overt. Su'uvarax asked about the odd phenomena, but Merosska disclaimed much knowledge. He did point the party toward the Sacred Stone Monastery as people who were probably up to no good.
Not everyone stayed on the roof. In the hall, Maendir and Zook observed the preparations for the feast. As the kitchen staff started bringing up food, Maendir recognized a halfling woman from his caravan from Phandalin to Triboar; this caravan continued south immediately and the party found the remains where it had later been attacked. Maendir spoke to Zook quietly but again avoided any overt action. Zook flubbed his Insight check and didn't notice how scared/nervous she was.
During the feast, Su'uvarax asked Merosska a leading question while Truth cast Detect Thoughts on him. Truth read: He feels smug, they don't know anything, it will be fun to set them on those earth dolts. Truth was not very subtle in his casting; Merosska didn't notice but some of the knights did.
We finished up with the manticore hunt, which is perhaps more intriguing in theory than in practice. Freyja, Thoril, Silaqui and Truth took part. The manticore rolled like a champ against the attackers's mounts and forced the knights to withdraw pretty quickly. Truth used some healing spells to keep himself and Thoril in the chase a little longer, but the manticore rolled more consistently and escaped.
I'm still wrestling with the nature of the air cult. The knights are described as law-and-order types who have been seduced by having the power to act against enemies of peace, but Aerisi is spoiled and self-delusional. I'm tending toward the more childish side, people who feel special and entitled and thwarted, who construct fantasies of revenge. However, this could be wasted effort -- does the party really need to understand the nature of the cult? Or is it enough for them to get in a fight?
So I have a couple of conversations planned that might be set aside in the end. Being into birds, Freyja helped out with the injured mounts. So there's an opportunity for one of the knights to see if she could be recruited, and introduce the idea of seeking power to avenge herself on her oppressors (in Freyja's case, her backstory is that her brother's wife is trying to have her shunted into a more traditional woman's role in the tribe). I think Merosska would feel out Su'uvarax as a possible recruit, and he'd have an eye on the bard for Aerisi.
The big question is whether the air cult would decide to try to sacrifice the party, and I think they'd find it more entertaining to use them against the earth cult first, with the thought of either recruiting or sacrificing the survivors. But the knights are feeling a little suspicious and could tip over to sacrificing if they seem nosy. The likeliest goad to a confrontation will be the party trying to investigate this halfling spice merchant in the air cult's kitchens. So I'm waiting to see what the party does next.
Monday, July 4, 2016
PotA Session 7
The Great Cockatrice Battle has come to a close. In the end, they decided to let three sleeping cockatrices lie. Marco the caravan master was not entirely happy with leaving any alive, but their nests were off the road. He will have to be satisfied with warning his fellow traders.
The shepherds didn't want to abandon the petrified dog and sheep, especially since Su'uvarax told them the condition would wear off. I decided the dog was a border collie, which is fairly small, so they could lift the statue and put it on a wagon. Silaqui knew Tenser's Floating Disk, which can be cast as a ritual and lasts an hour. That was enough to move the shepherds and flock away from the cockatrices, where they could wait for the effects to wear off. Since this is a game full of engineers, some of us spent most of the dessert/put-the-child-to-bed break googling and calculating the weight of the sheep statue. If a petrified creature has the same density as concrete, then a sheep statue should come in under 500 pounds, which is the limit of Tenser's Floating Disk.
The caravan arrived at Red Larch after dark. Another caravan from Secomber had arrived, bringing news of the lost delegation from Mirabar which failed to arrive at Goldenfields. Since most of this caravan was heading south for Waterdeep, and the territory south of Red Larch is more settled, Marco was able to let a lot of guards go, and the characters cashed out.
Red Larch has a ton of detail, but most of it doesn't come into play. I described some of the main businesses as the players came down the Long Road, until they hit the inn. There was a travelling priest of Lathander staying at the inn, so Truth found a comrade. Most of the others headed across to the tavern for gossip. Su'uvarax was still interested in books, and was directed to Valivoe's Sundries. The party went out the next morning to explore and Su'uvarax was shown the dwarven book. Since they brought Liliandra along, she was able to identify it as belonging to the dwarven sage from the missing Mirabar delegation. Su'uvarax got the info that it had come from Womford.
While at the tavern, the characters heard about the Haunted Keeps again; that got the attention of Su'uvarax, so it looks like they'll be headed there next. No need for shepherds to point out graves in illogical locations.
So now I'm wondering if I should bother with the Tomb of Moving Stones, since it will only redirect their focus toward the town rather than the keeps and I don't want to disrupt their momentum. It might be more effective after they've discovered the existence of a cult or two, to illustrate how the cults are at work throughout the region.
In that case, the next thing on the agenda is the Feathergale Keep. The main question there is whether they sneak around for a stealthy military approach or go the diplomatic route of talking to people. I need to study the maps. The tower is built in a canyon and rises above its walls; there's a bridge from the top of the canyon to the front door. So it matters if the party goes through the canyon to the base, or stays along the edge of the canyon and finds the front door. I'm not sure yet if I want to direct them one way or the other.
The shepherds didn't want to abandon the petrified dog and sheep, especially since Su'uvarax told them the condition would wear off. I decided the dog was a border collie, which is fairly small, so they could lift the statue and put it on a wagon. Silaqui knew Tenser's Floating Disk, which can be cast as a ritual and lasts an hour. That was enough to move the shepherds and flock away from the cockatrices, where they could wait for the effects to wear off. Since this is a game full of engineers, some of us spent most of the dessert/put-the-child-to-bed break googling and calculating the weight of the sheep statue. If a petrified creature has the same density as concrete, then a sheep statue should come in under 500 pounds, which is the limit of Tenser's Floating Disk.
The caravan arrived at Red Larch after dark. Another caravan from Secomber had arrived, bringing news of the lost delegation from Mirabar which failed to arrive at Goldenfields. Since most of this caravan was heading south for Waterdeep, and the territory south of Red Larch is more settled, Marco was able to let a lot of guards go, and the characters cashed out.
Red Larch has a ton of detail, but most of it doesn't come into play. I described some of the main businesses as the players came down the Long Road, until they hit the inn. There was a travelling priest of Lathander staying at the inn, so Truth found a comrade. Most of the others headed across to the tavern for gossip. Su'uvarax was still interested in books, and was directed to Valivoe's Sundries. The party went out the next morning to explore and Su'uvarax was shown the dwarven book. Since they brought Liliandra along, she was able to identify it as belonging to the dwarven sage from the missing Mirabar delegation. Su'uvarax got the info that it had come from Womford.
While at the tavern, the characters heard about the Haunted Keeps again; that got the attention of Su'uvarax, so it looks like they'll be headed there next. No need for shepherds to point out graves in illogical locations.
So now I'm wondering if I should bother with the Tomb of Moving Stones, since it will only redirect their focus toward the town rather than the keeps and I don't want to disrupt their momentum. It might be more effective after they've discovered the existence of a cult or two, to illustrate how the cults are at work throughout the region.
In that case, the next thing on the agenda is the Feathergale Keep. The main question there is whether they sneak around for a stealthy military approach or go the diplomatic route of talking to people. I need to study the maps. The tower is built in a canyon and rises above its walls; there's a bridge from the top of the canyon to the front door. So it matters if the party goes through the canyon to the base, or stays along the edge of the canyon and finds the front door. I'm not sure yet if I want to direct them one way or the other.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Planning Past Session 7
Once again, scheduling has proven tricky and we're only playing once in June, and not until the end of the month. This has given me time to work on the story progression. Reading through the Red Larch section of Chapter 2 and the early investigations in Chapter 3, it looks like the shepherd's discovery of graves outside Red Larch is the most useful, since they point to the air cult and Feathergale Spire is visible. However, since the published errata have moved the earth cult's headquarters farther north (and closer to the ambush site), it's even harder to see how the air cultists could have skirmished with them as they returned from their ambush of the delegation. Possibilities: this was the result of a skirmish between the cults entirely unrelated to the ambush, or the air cult did a lightning raid on the earth cult before they reached their monastery and the earth cult gave chase. If there aren't any Mirabar corpses in the graves, that leaves the situation somewhat ambiguous; the party might make a polite approach rather than assail the spire, which would be entertaining.
So, at Feathergale Spire they should determine (thanks to the halfling spire merchant in the kitchen) that the air cult has raided caravans, but there are no indications that they interfered with the Mirabar delegation. That should send the party to Beliard, the delegation's last known location. They can discover the remains from the attack. If they proceed to Summit Hall, they'll get the location of the monastery. Otherwise, tracking might lead them to the river, and we'll have to see how they proceed from there.
In preparation for the caravan's arrival in Red Larch, I used a highlighter to mark significant buildings on a printout of the town map. That will help me identify points of interest as the characters move through the town.
The owner of one of the wagon works has seen the fire cult symbol and has directions to their base. The party saw the fire cult symbol on the arsonists at the inn. If the characters don't pick up this clue while investigating the town, I'll have Rosemary make the connection and tell them on their return. And I can always have Liliandra point them to the shepherd and his graves to get things going in the direction, if need be.
So, at Feathergale Spire they should determine (thanks to the halfling spire merchant in the kitchen) that the air cult has raided caravans, but there are no indications that they interfered with the Mirabar delegation. That should send the party to Beliard, the delegation's last known location. They can discover the remains from the attack. If they proceed to Summit Hall, they'll get the location of the monastery. Otherwise, tracking might lead them to the river, and we'll have to see how they proceed from there.
In preparation for the caravan's arrival in Red Larch, I used a highlighter to mark significant buildings on a printout of the town map. That will help me identify points of interest as the characters move through the town.
The owner of one of the wagon works has seen the fire cult symbol and has directions to their base. The party saw the fire cult symbol on the arsonists at the inn. If the characters don't pick up this clue while investigating the town, I'll have Rosemary make the connection and tell them on their return. And I can always have Liliandra point them to the shepherd and his graves to get things going in the direction, if need be.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
PotA Session 6
With the approach of summer, scheduling has gotten harder and we were only able to manage a single session in May. It did not go quite as expected.
The plan was to have the cockatrice fight and then arrive in Red Larch. However, the first half of the session wound up being improvised. I rolled for the day's encounters, where 17 or higher meant an encounter. The first roll was a 2, so I figured something other than an encounter should go wrong. The land shark had pounced on a wagon in its initial attack, so I decided that an axle had been damaged. Su'uvarax decided to take advantage of the delay to explore the Sumber Hills a little -- his patron had asked him to investigate -- and he talked Freyja into a little excursion.
This seemed like an excellent time for them to run into the local Uthgardt tribe, the Elks. I had the source book open to the page with the tribe info, and mangled some adjacent NPC names for the two who made conversation. While reading up on Red Larch, I saw that a character had noticed strange things like lightning going up into the sky and patches of fog in broad daylight, so I gave that clue to the barbarians. They were able to show a fog patch to Su'uvarax, who poked around at it without learning anything. Freyja told them about the land shark, which they had never seen.
When they got back to the caravan, Su'uvarax talked to some of the other magic types about what he had learned and got permission from Marco the caravan master to go investigate. Marco decided he'd rather wait for the results while sitting out on the plains, where he could see trouble coming. Su'uvarax managed to find the fog patch again, and Silaqui, Truth and Zook did some arcane investigations. Silaqui noticed that there was a general but unorganized magic about the fog. Zook recognized that the magic was similar to his own wild magic, but not as friendly-feeling as what he experienced.
While the magic types pondered their clues, the outdoorsy types went hunting and acquired some wild pigs for lunch, so the caravan wasn't too anxious about the wait in the end.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and it wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that they overtook a pair of shepherds with their flock. The sheep shifted off the road to let the wagons pass, drifted over a ridge and then came running back with cockatrices in pursuit. Su'uvarax had a good roll and identified them.
Sadly, the scouts were still staying a quarter-mile ahead, so once again they are spending the fight running back to the caravan. (They think getting horses will solve the problem, but my solution is for the party to ditch the caravan and stay in Red Larch.) Even sadly-er, it turns out that a caravan of eight wagons, plus a flock of sheep, plus a dozen cockatrices are all a lot to manage during a combat. We managed three rounds of combat without finishing the fight. Liliandra was able to use Sleep to good effect, but cockatrices are hardy and the magic-users are running out of slots. Freyja narrowly avoided getting turned to stone. It remains to be seen if Thoril and Maendir will be able to get in on the action. If not, I will have Marco send them over the ridge to make sure there are no more cockatrices lurking in the vicinity of the road.
Next up: exploring Red Larch, dealing with the Tomb of the Moving Stones, picking up clues for Feathergale Spire.
The plan was to have the cockatrice fight and then arrive in Red Larch. However, the first half of the session wound up being improvised. I rolled for the day's encounters, where 17 or higher meant an encounter. The first roll was a 2, so I figured something other than an encounter should go wrong. The land shark had pounced on a wagon in its initial attack, so I decided that an axle had been damaged. Su'uvarax decided to take advantage of the delay to explore the Sumber Hills a little -- his patron had asked him to investigate -- and he talked Freyja into a little excursion.
This seemed like an excellent time for them to run into the local Uthgardt tribe, the Elks. I had the source book open to the page with the tribe info, and mangled some adjacent NPC names for the two who made conversation. While reading up on Red Larch, I saw that a character had noticed strange things like lightning going up into the sky and patches of fog in broad daylight, so I gave that clue to the barbarians. They were able to show a fog patch to Su'uvarax, who poked around at it without learning anything. Freyja told them about the land shark, which they had never seen.
When they got back to the caravan, Su'uvarax talked to some of the other magic types about what he had learned and got permission from Marco the caravan master to go investigate. Marco decided he'd rather wait for the results while sitting out on the plains, where he could see trouble coming. Su'uvarax managed to find the fog patch again, and Silaqui, Truth and Zook did some arcane investigations. Silaqui noticed that there was a general but unorganized magic about the fog. Zook recognized that the magic was similar to his own wild magic, but not as friendly-feeling as what he experienced.
While the magic types pondered their clues, the outdoorsy types went hunting and acquired some wild pigs for lunch, so the caravan wasn't too anxious about the wait in the end.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and it wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that they overtook a pair of shepherds with their flock. The sheep shifted off the road to let the wagons pass, drifted over a ridge and then came running back with cockatrices in pursuit. Su'uvarax had a good roll and identified them.
Sadly, the scouts were still staying a quarter-mile ahead, so once again they are spending the fight running back to the caravan. (They think getting horses will solve the problem, but my solution is for the party to ditch the caravan and stay in Red Larch.) Even sadly-er, it turns out that a caravan of eight wagons, plus a flock of sheep, plus a dozen cockatrices are all a lot to manage during a combat. We managed three rounds of combat without finishing the fight. Liliandra was able to use Sleep to good effect, but cockatrices are hardy and the magic-users are running out of slots. Freyja narrowly avoided getting turned to stone. It remains to be seen if Thoril and Maendir will be able to get in on the action. If not, I will have Marco send them over the ridge to make sure there are no more cockatrices lurking in the vicinity of the road.
Next up: exploring Red Larch, dealing with the Tomb of the Moving Stones, picking up clues for Feathergale Spire.
Friday, April 29, 2016
PotA Session 5
We managed to survive the great land shark attack. First there was the resolution to the question, "How far ahead are Thoril and Maendir scouting?" The answer wound up at a quarter mile, which is practical for scouting but not for encounters. Then there was a diversion to the inn at Westbridge, to reset the context of where they were. And I wound up rolling an encounter during the night.
So I sketched out a layout of inn, pasture, barn and makeshift extra pasture, since they had so many wagons and oxen. None of the encounters were making a lot of sense, so I settled on some wolves being attracted to all the extra oxen. Truth, Freyja and Maendir were on watch. Maendir spotted them and advanced on them, yelling. This alerted the others. Truth cast a fire bolt in their general direction, and rolled a 1 for damage. So at least he didn't set the grass on fire. Freyja joined up with Maendir, so they were a mini-pack in opposition.
Meanwhile, Thoril was sleeping in the woods, and one of the more alert wolves went to check him out. He used body language to indicate that he was not prey, and the wolf pondered how to classify him.
Back at the main incursion, the wolves split into two groups on either side of Maendir/Freyja. Maendir cast speak with animals and told the wolves to back off. Truth tried using thaumaturgy to echo Maendir's howling, but a bad perception roll had him apologizing to the wolves instead: "I'm just a child, I don't know any better." In the end, the wolves decided that this was more opposition than they wanted to deal with, so they withdrew.
Finally, we got the caravan on the road again. Near the end of the day's travel, Maendir and Thoril missed their perception rolls, both with a 6. In the front wagon, Zook also rolled a 6. I gave the scouts another chance and this time Maendir rolled a 16. He noticed a tremor in the ground -- behind him, toward the caravan. Finally, someone had a clue!
So Thoril and Maendir started running back to the caravan, from a quarter mile out. I gave them 5 rounds of running before the bulette emerged in front of the caravan, but that still put them 650 feet out. Let that be a lesson to roll better on perception.
The bulette used its Deadly Leap to pounce on the lead oxen. The target ox rolled a 19! for its save, resulting in half damage. The stupid Monster Manual somehow fails to have an entry for oxen, so I used the HP for draft horse instead -- 19. The ox took 8 damage, thanks to its stellar rolling. Also, I dropped the damage rolls by one die so it wouldn't insta-kill a party member.
Since there are 8 wagons in the caravan, the party was all strung out. Zook was the only one close and the others had to find a way to target it. Fortunately for Su'uvarax, eldritch blast has a terrific range. The oxen rolled the lowest initiative, but they eventually scattered out of the way.
In the next round, I rolled to see what the bulette would target, since there were several wagons nearby. It went for something slightly out of range. With the wagons out of the way, the party had much better line of sight. Also, the NPC guards fired crossbows; their rolls were either really bad or really good.
In the third round, Freyja and Silaqui managed to make it up from the end of the caravan. Freyja threw her javelin and Silaqui took the kill with a chromatic orb; since the bulette had 1 hit point by then, it was the definition of overkill. But I didn't tell them that, because what's the point?
The fight ended with Thoril and Maendir still 400+ feet out. The players think that the scouts should have horses.
Next session, I unleash the cockatrices. Per the MM, they're not a hazard unless they feel threatened. I don't want to park them right next to the road. My next thought was to have the party find a flock of sheep untended, milling about on the road; an investigation would lead them to some stone sheep and shepherds. But would they all investigate? So now the plan is that they overtake a flock on the road, which moves aside to let them pass, and some sheep range into the cockatrices' territory. Cue outraged cockatrices. After that, they should pull into Red Larch. I'll let them wander around town (need to study up on the NPCs) and then do the Tomb of Moving Stones.
So I sketched out a layout of inn, pasture, barn and makeshift extra pasture, since they had so many wagons and oxen. None of the encounters were making a lot of sense, so I settled on some wolves being attracted to all the extra oxen. Truth, Freyja and Maendir were on watch. Maendir spotted them and advanced on them, yelling. This alerted the others. Truth cast a fire bolt in their general direction, and rolled a 1 for damage. So at least he didn't set the grass on fire. Freyja joined up with Maendir, so they were a mini-pack in opposition.
Meanwhile, Thoril was sleeping in the woods, and one of the more alert wolves went to check him out. He used body language to indicate that he was not prey, and the wolf pondered how to classify him.
Back at the main incursion, the wolves split into two groups on either side of Maendir/Freyja. Maendir cast speak with animals and told the wolves to back off. Truth tried using thaumaturgy to echo Maendir's howling, but a bad perception roll had him apologizing to the wolves instead: "I'm just a child, I don't know any better." In the end, the wolves decided that this was more opposition than they wanted to deal with, so they withdrew.
Finally, we got the caravan on the road again. Near the end of the day's travel, Maendir and Thoril missed their perception rolls, both with a 6. In the front wagon, Zook also rolled a 6. I gave the scouts another chance and this time Maendir rolled a 16. He noticed a tremor in the ground -- behind him, toward the caravan. Finally, someone had a clue!
So Thoril and Maendir started running back to the caravan, from a quarter mile out. I gave them 5 rounds of running before the bulette emerged in front of the caravan, but that still put them 650 feet out. Let that be a lesson to roll better on perception.
The bulette used its Deadly Leap to pounce on the lead oxen. The target ox rolled a 19! for its save, resulting in half damage. The stupid Monster Manual somehow fails to have an entry for oxen, so I used the HP for draft horse instead -- 19. The ox took 8 damage, thanks to its stellar rolling. Also, I dropped the damage rolls by one die so it wouldn't insta-kill a party member.
Since there are 8 wagons in the caravan, the party was all strung out. Zook was the only one close and the others had to find a way to target it. Fortunately for Su'uvarax, eldritch blast has a terrific range. The oxen rolled the lowest initiative, but they eventually scattered out of the way.
In the next round, I rolled to see what the bulette would target, since there were several wagons nearby. It went for something slightly out of range. With the wagons out of the way, the party had much better line of sight. Also, the NPC guards fired crossbows; their rolls were either really bad or really good.
In the third round, Freyja and Silaqui managed to make it up from the end of the caravan. Freyja threw her javelin and Silaqui took the kill with a chromatic orb; since the bulette had 1 hit point by then, it was the definition of overkill. But I didn't tell them that, because what's the point?
The fight ended with Thoril and Maendir still 400+ feet out. The players think that the scouts should have horses.
Next session, I unleash the cockatrices. Per the MM, they're not a hazard unless they feel threatened. I don't want to park them right next to the road. My next thought was to have the party find a flock of sheep untended, milling about on the road; an investigation would lead them to some stone sheep and shepherds. But would they all investigate? So now the plan is that they overtake a flock on the road, which moves aside to let them pass, and some sheep range into the cockatrices' territory. Cue outraged cockatrices. After that, they should pull into Red Larch. I'll let them wander around town (need to study up on the NPCs) and then do the Tomb of Moving Stones.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
PotA Session 4
Scheduling problems resulted in a delay and a Tuesday game; next week is back to Wednesday. I am still feeling the lingering effects of the Cold That Won't Go Away, so it was a light session.
I did take a look at the map of the Dessarin Valley, so I could correlate the when and the where of various events. Encounters are kind of tricky, since I wound up creating a large caravan. Ragtag bandits groups aren't going to assail a string of 8 wagons with 16 guards and 10 drovers and assorted passengers. On the plus side, they aren't going to be attacked by any cultists, either; I'd rather the group have to go looking for them.
We finished up some of the details of the Great Fire Snake Arson Attempt in Triboar. I showed them the symbol of the fire cult, which they discovered on the corpses of the arsonists. Nobody knew anything about the symbol, or the arsonists. They learned that one of the arsonists had submitted a couple of fire snake casks as cargo, which is how the casks ended up inside the cargo warehouse (no burgling required). And they found shards of dark glass where the casks had come apart; Su'uvarax knew that salamander eggs were made of obsidian. So they put all the pieces together.
The caravan set out in the morning. The first point of interest on the map was Black Maw Bog. This is where I first started noticing the limitation on good encounters; random predators wouldn't attack such a large target. They did see giant toads, and I was prepared to have wanderers get pounced on, but they were careful. Freyja took the opportunity to examine new and interesting plant life, and collected some samples.
Su'uvarax asked Liliandra about the Sumber Hills. She mentioned the Haunted Keeps, although she's not sure where they lie, and also Summit Hall over on the east side, home of the Knights of Samular. They're an order of paladins of Tyr.
During the next day, they discovered the remains of the caravan. Thoril and Freyja investigated, and pieced together the story. Since Freyja is a member of the Eagle clan, she's into birds, plus she rolled well, so she identified giant vultures as the initial attackers. Thoril also realized that there weren't as many corpses as one would expect. Some of the cargo seemed to be missing, too.
While the caravan was making camp, a patrol from the Knights of Samular rode up: a veteran and 2 novices. Thoril made fun of their armor and tried to tackle one of the novices, but had no purchase. Initially, the novice demurred at taking off his armor to fight, but the veteran gave him the nod. Thoril managed to roll well and take him down a couple of times, but never quite pinned him. His victory was a boon to his fellow guards, who bet on him against the merchants, who were more impressed with the paladin.
The groups exchanged news, since the knights had just come from Westbridge. They were very interested in the caravan attack, and the story of the arson attempt decided them to head all the way up to Triboar for more information. In return, the caravan learned that Westbridge was talking about some children who went missing from a local homestead, and that a delegation from Mirabar was expected to stop at Summit Hall to return the body of a fallen comrade. Liliandra had come down from Mirabar with the delegation before pausing in Triboar, so she was able to tell them about it. She also mentioned a couple of merchants who were overdue in Triboar from Waterdeep, and a group of adventurers from Triboar who hadn't been seen in a while.
In the morning, the caravan proceeded to Westbridge. The town was still talking about the missing children, and the innkeeper also mentioned a dwarven prospector who hadn't been seen in several days. So a general theme of people going missing has been established. The innkeeper also provided a lot of detail about the delegation from Mirabar, which passed through Westbridge. Fancier than their usual customers. There were some diplomats, and a dwarf historian transporting his library to Waterdeep, which he mentioned since Su'uvarax was once again disappointed in his search for a library in the village. During the discussion, Liliandra mentioned that the nearby Kryptgarden Forest was home to an ancient green dragon. Su'uvarax was initially interested in talking to it, but no one wanted to go with him, so he tabled the idea.
Freyja had been monitoring the weather. She noticed that rain clouds were moving toward the Sumber Hills from all directions, which is not how rain clouds usually work. She got the innkeeper to talk about the weather, and he mentioned how, when it rained, it tended to be a short, heavy deluge -- not at all useful for crops. Which was a concern, since the local farms provided a lot of food for cities in the region.
So a lot of seeds have been planted for future investigation.
Coming up next, they could do with an encounter. Given the size of the caravan, I'm inclined to postpone a jackalwere encounter until after the party is on their own. I'm still going to use the cockatrices, but I want them closer to Red Larch. If anyone gets petrified, that will give the whole caravan an excuse to linger for a day. So it's going to be a monster, and since the players got to fight an ankheg in Lost Mine of Phandelver, I'm thinking bullette (land shark). It's usually a CR 5 monster with a 4d12+4 bite attack, which could easily kill characters. I might scale back the damage and hit points, and make it a CR 4 encounter instead. I can have it emerge basically right underneath the advance scouts (Thoril and Maendir) and then it has to close with the caravan. That would give everyone a chance to react, at least.
Friday, March 25, 2016
PotA Session 3
We started promptly, which was useful. The party, along with the stablehands and drovers, spread out across the inn yard looking for more fire snakes. I put two fire cultists in position to keep people out of the warehouse and another two tracking Silaqui, since she was so effective against the fire snakes. These were standard thug NPCs with the Charger feat added to give them some fire cult flavor -- a suggestion from somewhere that I liked. There were four more snakes lurking. The first went off inside the inn, but no one was downstairs to notice. The second fire snake went off outside the inn; the arsonists had doused the fence with oil to help it catch fire and travel up past the inn's stone foundation.
Some stablehands spotted the new fire. At this point, the team on Silaqui was able to close and attack. They had multiattack and all four hits landed, so she dropped. Fortunately, Truth and Zook were in the area, heard the yells of nearby hands and came over to help. Meanwhile, Su'uvarax found the warehouse was locked, which he figured meant no fire snakes, so he had wandered closer to the inn and went to address that snake. Liliandra the minstrel had hopped out a 2nd story window (so much faster than the stairs). She put the fire snake to sleep, which made her the next target. Maendir, hanging out in the wagon yard, saw a glow from the warehouse and went over. When he tried prying the hasp free to open the door, he was attacked by the second team; they dropped him, too.
At this point, the fire cultists were looking entirely too effective, so I cut their hit points by 10 so they'd go down sooner. Looking back, I misinterpreted their feat: they use Dash (so a double move) and get a bonus attack, but I was giving them their multiattack instead of a single attack. Oops.
Since the cultists were so mobile and the party was so spread out, it took a while for them to gain some traction. Fortunately, the cultists didn't roll so well on their next targets and wound up staying in one place for a round, which gave the party a chance to converge a little. Once they started helping each other, they were able to work their way through the various targets.
Thoril (the elf barbarian) kept using a Dash to close with a target, which left him without an attack. Three times in a row, a spellcaster moved into range of his target and finished it with a spell before he had a chance to hit it. So we got our first running joke -- always an important milestone. Thoril was able to kill a fire snake with a thrown handaxe, so he wasn't left feeling totally useless.
Unfortunately, Maendir rolled terribly on his death saving throws. I gave Todd the option of keeping the character or coming up with a new one, and Maendir survived. Todd didn't see the point of the animal companion -- he was playing a pregen character because he doesn't have the PHB and ranger isn't in the Basic Rules PDF. We copied the relevant pages for his reference. I'm glad he's keeping the ranger, but I'm hoping he'll switch to the Hunter archetype so I can stop reading all the "how to fix Beastmaster" threads.
Yesterday, I realized that Todd doesn't have the writeups for all the ranger spells, either, so I bought spell cards. I wound up buying all the spell cards, because I'm a compleatist. They look like they would be more useful for classes that prepare spells from a list, as opposed to classes that only know certain spells.
The spellcasters were using Roll20 to cast spells, which is a new thing for them. Richard wrote a macro for Scorching Ray, which has multiple attacks for the same spell, and shared it with Randy for Zook's magic missile spell. In other Roll20 developments, I discovered NPC character sheets, which I used for the cultist and fire snake attacks.
Some clues to drop:
Coming up: caravan travel. I think one encounter during the day, when they're strung out, and once at night, when they're in camp. They also need to find the remains of a caravan that was attacked by the air cult -- so tracks of giant birds. I need to check the map to see how many days they'll be on the road. Maybe some benign encounters from the random encounter table, to mix it up. They should pass at least one caravan coming up from Waterdeep; this would be a good time to drop some news about the missing delegation.
Some stablehands spotted the new fire. At this point, the team on Silaqui was able to close and attack. They had multiattack and all four hits landed, so she dropped. Fortunately, Truth and Zook were in the area, heard the yells of nearby hands and came over to help. Meanwhile, Su'uvarax found the warehouse was locked, which he figured meant no fire snakes, so he had wandered closer to the inn and went to address that snake. Liliandra the minstrel had hopped out a 2nd story window (so much faster than the stairs). She put the fire snake to sleep, which made her the next target. Maendir, hanging out in the wagon yard, saw a glow from the warehouse and went over. When he tried prying the hasp free to open the door, he was attacked by the second team; they dropped him, too.
At this point, the fire cultists were looking entirely too effective, so I cut their hit points by 10 so they'd go down sooner. Looking back, I misinterpreted their feat: they use Dash (so a double move) and get a bonus attack, but I was giving them their multiattack instead of a single attack. Oops.
Since the cultists were so mobile and the party was so spread out, it took a while for them to gain some traction. Fortunately, the cultists didn't roll so well on their next targets and wound up staying in one place for a round, which gave the party a chance to converge a little. Once they started helping each other, they were able to work their way through the various targets.
Thoril (the elf barbarian) kept using a Dash to close with a target, which left him without an attack. Three times in a row, a spellcaster moved into range of his target and finished it with a spell before he had a chance to hit it. So we got our first running joke -- always an important milestone. Thoril was able to kill a fire snake with a thrown handaxe, so he wasn't left feeling totally useless.
Unfortunately, Maendir rolled terribly on his death saving throws. I gave Todd the option of keeping the character or coming up with a new one, and Maendir survived. Todd didn't see the point of the animal companion -- he was playing a pregen character because he doesn't have the PHB and ranger isn't in the Basic Rules PDF. We copied the relevant pages for his reference. I'm glad he's keeping the ranger, but I'm hoping he'll switch to the Hunter archetype so I can stop reading all the "how to fix Beastmaster" threads.
Yesterday, I realized that Todd doesn't have the writeups for all the ranger spells, either, so I bought spell cards. I wound up buying all the spell cards, because I'm a compleatist. They look like they would be more useful for classes that prepare spells from a list, as opposed to classes that only know certain spells.
The spellcasters were using Roll20 to cast spells, which is a new thing for them. Richard wrote a macro for Scorching Ray, which has multiple attacks for the same spell, and shared it with Randy for Zook's magic missile spell. In other Roll20 developments, I discovered NPC character sheets, which I used for the cultist and fire snake attacks.
Some clues to drop:
- Truth and Zook examined the fire snake casks; I forgot about the shards from the obsidian eggs.
- A couple of merchants are overdue from Waterdeep; this caravan will be asked to watch for them.
Coming up: caravan travel. I think one encounter during the day, when they're strung out, and once at night, when they're in camp. They also need to find the remains of a caravan that was attacked by the air cult -- so tracks of giant birds. I need to check the map to see how many days they'll be on the road. Maybe some benign encounters from the random encounter table, to mix it up. They should pass at least one caravan coming up from Waterdeep; this would be a good time to drop some news about the missing delegation.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
PotA Session 2
We lost a lot of time because I let people choose their tokens in Roll20, which led to people doing image searches and trying out different images. Looks like the ultimate solution is to use Hero Forge to create a figure, take a picture and paint it in PhotoShop. Will and Richard are the most into it, so I am leaving them to it. Richard's character is a tiefling favored soul sorcerer named Truth.
We did some more character intro stuff, signing up for the caravan and sparring or otherwise demonstrating their credentials to be crew instead of cargo. It took some prodding but Martin remembered that he was looking for books and checked out a shop. This was a chance to drop some info about the dwarven sage who was in the now-missing delegation. There are at least three characters looking for answers to particular questions, so wanting to talk to the sage should provide motivation to investigate the delegation's disappearance. Liliandra can drop more info to get them interested.
Once we recovered Randy from childcare duties, we were able to proceed with the great fire snake extravaganza. I needed everyone to pick their sleeping spot. Most of them bunked in the yard around the wagons, and two more were in the barn. The first fire snake to emerge was in the barn, where the Silaqui the wizard and Zook the gnome were sleeping. They both had cold spells and were able to deal with it fairly expeditiously, although Zook was attacked before diving into a stall and slamming the door.
As the outdoorsy types headed for the commotion in the barn, they encountered another fire snake emerging next to a wagon. Silaqui recognized the glowing cask and rolled it away from the wagon before it burst open. The gathered characters dispatched it with a little struggle.
The stablemaster has the hands and the drovers who were sleeping in the barn searching the yard for more snakes. Su'uvarax the warlock made a beeline for the cargo warehouse, since it was the only enclosed space. That's as far as we've gotten.
There are two fire snakes planted in the cargo warehouse and the door has a lock. I want the party to confront their lack of thieves tools early on, so they can decide if they want to handle it themselves or incorporate Liliandra. There are two more snakes, one outside the inn and one planted just inside the front door. They'll be going off more at the same time. I also have a few cultists to drop into the mix. Silaqui has been very effective against the fire snakes, so someone will try to take her out, and someone else will want to keep Su'uvarax out of the cargo warehouse.
Once the caravan leaves the inn, I'll do a jackalwere ambush on the second day. Discovering the remains of a previous caravan, with signs of giant birds, should happen south of Westbridge. I also want to hit them with a flock of cockatrices, perhaps closer to Red Larch. Other clues: the innkeeper will ask Liliandra to keep an eye out for the missing merchants from Waterdeep, and folks in Westbridge will be talking about the siblings who went missing from a nearby homestead.
We're playing in a week, since Richard will be home from college on break. To do:
We did some more character intro stuff, signing up for the caravan and sparring or otherwise demonstrating their credentials to be crew instead of cargo. It took some prodding but Martin remembered that he was looking for books and checked out a shop. This was a chance to drop some info about the dwarven sage who was in the now-missing delegation. There are at least three characters looking for answers to particular questions, so wanting to talk to the sage should provide motivation to investigate the delegation's disappearance. Liliandra can drop more info to get them interested.
Once we recovered Randy from childcare duties, we were able to proceed with the great fire snake extravaganza. I needed everyone to pick their sleeping spot. Most of them bunked in the yard around the wagons, and two more were in the barn. The first fire snake to emerge was in the barn, where the Silaqui the wizard and Zook the gnome were sleeping. They both had cold spells and were able to deal with it fairly expeditiously, although Zook was attacked before diving into a stall and slamming the door.
As the outdoorsy types headed for the commotion in the barn, they encountered another fire snake emerging next to a wagon. Silaqui recognized the glowing cask and rolled it away from the wagon before it burst open. The gathered characters dispatched it with a little struggle.
The stablemaster has the hands and the drovers who were sleeping in the barn searching the yard for more snakes. Su'uvarax the warlock made a beeline for the cargo warehouse, since it was the only enclosed space. That's as far as we've gotten.
There are two fire snakes planted in the cargo warehouse and the door has a lock. I want the party to confront their lack of thieves tools early on, so they can decide if they want to handle it themselves or incorporate Liliandra. There are two more snakes, one outside the inn and one planted just inside the front door. They'll be going off more at the same time. I also have a few cultists to drop into the mix. Silaqui has been very effective against the fire snakes, so someone will try to take her out, and someone else will want to keep Su'uvarax out of the cargo warehouse.
Once the caravan leaves the inn, I'll do a jackalwere ambush on the second day. Discovering the remains of a previous caravan, with signs of giant birds, should happen south of Westbridge. I also want to hit them with a flock of cockatrices, perhaps closer to Red Larch. Other clues: the innkeeper will ask Liliandra to keep an eye out for the missing merchants from Waterdeep, and folks in Westbridge will be talking about the siblings who went missing from a nearby homestead.
We're playing in a week, since Richard will be home from college on break. To do:
- Take another pass through character sheets
- Finalize cultist details
- Reread upcoming sections on Red Larch and the Haunted Keeps
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Planning for Session 2
We generally play every two weeks, which gives me time to work on small and big picture stuff.
The biggish picture has been the plotline for the investigation. Based on difficulty, the optimal order for the Haunted Keeps is air, earth, water, fire. However, investigating the delegation's disappearance points to earth and water. Granted, I can't control how the party proceeds, but if there's a logical through-line, then the party at least has a way to get to the optimal progression.
I had been thinking of having the caravan encounter the remains of a previous caravan, which had been attacked by large birds and was missing bodies -- let all the outdoorsy types exercise their tracking skills to analyze the scene. That would lead them to Feathergale Spire with suspicions. However, that means two investigations. Then I realized: If I show them a caravan which was attacked by large birds, and they hear about another caravan going awry, they could assume it's the same root cause. So they deal with the air keep, then have to investigate the delegation, which points to the earth and water keeps. At that point, they'll probably investigate the fourth keep (fire) because they've figured out the pattern. If not, they can find out that the "druids" have advertised a ritual which will end the weather problems, which the human barbarian will want to check out. In a pinch, I can always have Rosemary meet up with some druids in Red Larch, and head out to the fire fest in order to make business contacts.
Next up: I want the players to have a chance to test out their characters before committing, which implies an adventure in Triboar before the caravan leaves. I like introducing the fire element early, so we'll let the fire snakes show up here. They hatch from obsidian eggs, and burning down the inn is totally up the fire cult's alley. So, a half dozen eggs, each packed in a pitch-lined cask cushioned with straw, left in a few locations around the inn. Now I have to come up with an inn layout, but I can borrow bits from the Bargewright Inn.
In order to help all the characters get acquainted, I'm going to have them sign up with the caravan master as either cargo or employees. They'll get to demonstrate their skills. So, caravan master Marco and head drover Val. How many wagons? There will be a couple spare drovers, so let's say 8 wagons and 10 drovers. Ideally two guards per wagon, but maybe 6 characters and 10 NPCs. Now I can set up a page in Roll20 for caravan encounters. I researched element-related creatures and I think a flock of cockatrices would provide a challenge. Plus the jackalweres from the random encounter table are interesting.
New question: If the characters sign on as caravan guards, how can they leave the caravan in Red Larch? Say a caravan arrives from Secomber; part of that will travel north to Triboar and another part will circle south to Waterdeep. That will give their caravan enough protection to continue without them.
I reviewed all the character sheets in Roll20, as much as was there. I want to allocate some uncommon magic items, utility doodads. The barbarian is the only one without darkvision, so we'll want a convenient light source. The Gem of Brightness seems like something the gnome would have. The ranger gets a Quiver of Ehlonna for lots of ammunition for the dungeon crawls. Always nice to have a bag of holding; that seems like something a traveling wizard would pack. The human barbarian is an Uthgardt, which makes magic tricky. But she took proficiency in medicine and the herbalism kit, so she gets a jar of Keoghtom's ointment from her shaman.
I like the weapon of warning and the ring of water walking, but they feel a little too powerful for 3rd level. Maybe a couple of +1 daggers to round things out. I'll have to study the magic items some more.
Map issues: Lots of talk about discrepancies in the maps. I bought the online versions and printed everything out. Most things line up internally, although I'll rotate a couple of nodes to avoid collisions. The bigger issue is arranging the Haunted Keeps. I'm going to resize the Dessarin Valley map scale so 1 hex = 5 miles, not 10. I'm not too chuffed about lining up the entrances to the surface, since most of them are pretty far from the temples. However, the Sacred Stone Monastery should move north of the Riverguard Keep.
Things to do:
The biggish picture has been the plotline for the investigation. Based on difficulty, the optimal order for the Haunted Keeps is air, earth, water, fire. However, investigating the delegation's disappearance points to earth and water. Granted, I can't control how the party proceeds, but if there's a logical through-line, then the party at least has a way to get to the optimal progression.
I had been thinking of having the caravan encounter the remains of a previous caravan, which had been attacked by large birds and was missing bodies -- let all the outdoorsy types exercise their tracking skills to analyze the scene. That would lead them to Feathergale Spire with suspicions. However, that means two investigations. Then I realized: If I show them a caravan which was attacked by large birds, and they hear about another caravan going awry, they could assume it's the same root cause. So they deal with the air keep, then have to investigate the delegation, which points to the earth and water keeps. At that point, they'll probably investigate the fourth keep (fire) because they've figured out the pattern. If not, they can find out that the "druids" have advertised a ritual which will end the weather problems, which the human barbarian will want to check out. In a pinch, I can always have Rosemary meet up with some druids in Red Larch, and head out to the fire fest in order to make business contacts.
Next up: I want the players to have a chance to test out their characters before committing, which implies an adventure in Triboar before the caravan leaves. I like introducing the fire element early, so we'll let the fire snakes show up here. They hatch from obsidian eggs, and burning down the inn is totally up the fire cult's alley. So, a half dozen eggs, each packed in a pitch-lined cask cushioned with straw, left in a few locations around the inn. Now I have to come up with an inn layout, but I can borrow bits from the Bargewright Inn.
In order to help all the characters get acquainted, I'm going to have them sign up with the caravan master as either cargo or employees. They'll get to demonstrate their skills. So, caravan master Marco and head drover Val. How many wagons? There will be a couple spare drovers, so let's say 8 wagons and 10 drovers. Ideally two guards per wagon, but maybe 6 characters and 10 NPCs. Now I can set up a page in Roll20 for caravan encounters. I researched element-related creatures and I think a flock of cockatrices would provide a challenge. Plus the jackalweres from the random encounter table are interesting.
New question: If the characters sign on as caravan guards, how can they leave the caravan in Red Larch? Say a caravan arrives from Secomber; part of that will travel north to Triboar and another part will circle south to Waterdeep. That will give their caravan enough protection to continue without them.
I reviewed all the character sheets in Roll20, as much as was there. I want to allocate some uncommon magic items, utility doodads. The barbarian is the only one without darkvision, so we'll want a convenient light source. The Gem of Brightness seems like something the gnome would have. The ranger gets a Quiver of Ehlonna for lots of ammunition for the dungeon crawls. Always nice to have a bag of holding; that seems like something a traveling wizard would pack. The human barbarian is an Uthgardt, which makes magic tricky. But she took proficiency in medicine and the herbalism kit, so she gets a jar of Keoghtom's ointment from her shaman.
I like the weapon of warning and the ring of water walking, but they feel a little too powerful for 3rd level. Maybe a couple of +1 daggers to round things out. I'll have to study the magic items some more.
Map issues: Lots of talk about discrepancies in the maps. I bought the online versions and printed everything out. Most things line up internally, although I'll rotate a couple of nodes to avoid collisions. The bigger issue is arranging the Haunted Keeps. I'm going to resize the Dessarin Valley map scale so 1 hex = 5 miles, not 10. I'm not too chuffed about lining up the entrances to the surface, since most of them are pretty far from the temples. However, the Sacred Stone Monastery should move north of the Riverguard Keep.
Things to do:
- Dessarin Valley map adjustments
- Set up Triboar inn in Roll20
- Set up caravan in Roll20
- Prod people to complete characters
- Finish doodad allocation
Thursday, March 3, 2016
PotA Session 1
As expected, we spent most of the session working on characters. I got people thinking about their new characters a couple of months ago, and they had two weeks since our last game to put something together. Some people did more DM consulting than others.
I was really looking forward to this process as a way to see what people want to get out of the game. As a DM, I'm finding that I really like narrative, so I want this to be a story. I didn't want to just plunk people down in a tavern and have them all team up. I spent time going over the map, picking out likely places for people to be from. But of course, some people had their own ideas.
Now that we knew more or less who everyone was, I needed to get them together, along with seeding some adventure hooks. Silaqui had been traveling all over, so I decided she had gone up along the coast to Neverwinter, and was turning inland for a change. So she was in a caravan that came across the Triboar Trail, which Maendir and Rosemary joined. Zook spent some time observing caravan traffic around Conyberry before hopping onto a caravan to Triboar.
I put the dragonborn in the High Forest near the Dessarin River. When he was grown, he went to Silverymoon to see if he could learn about his missing clan. They had info on dragonborn history, culture, anatomy -- a lot of academic material, but nothing about specific dragonborn. He decided to go to Waterdeep to find more dragonborn. Freyja was trying to find people who knew magic, but Silverymoon was too big a city for her. She met Su'uvarax on the road out of the city. She's from the Golden Eagle clan and decided his golden eyes were like the eagles, plus he seemed knowledgeable about magic and it was sad that he was missing his clan. So they travelled west together. Su'uvarax had a message from his patron: "Power gathers in the Sumber Hills. Investigate." That pointed him to the Long Road, and Triboar.
Thoril was working as a caravan guard along the Long Road, so that got him to Triboar. I had planned to put his barbarians in the High Forest with Su'uvarax, but Will had picked a different location. Still, elven barbarians in the region probably keep in touch periodically, so Thoril had heard of Su'uvarax.
I'm using Liliandra and Rosemary to get various people acquainted before they head south on the caravan. Nice development: Su'uvarax is looking for libraries, or booksellers, so that will tie in with the sage's books.
Plans:
I was really looking forward to this process as a way to see what people want to get out of the game. As a DM, I'm finding that I really like narrative, so I want this to be a story. I didn't want to just plunk people down in a tavern and have them all team up. I spent time going over the map, picking out likely places for people to be from. But of course, some people had their own ideas.
- (Thoril) Will had his character ready a month ago. He has an elven barbarian based on a Germanic tribe that herded aurochs. I'm curious to see how the DEX-based barbarian plays out. As a coming-of-age rite, he is seeking an adventure that will inspire an epic poem.
- (Su'uvarax) Martin decided on a dragonborn warlock, Great Old One patron. He was separated from his clan and adopted by barbarians. Also, he went with black scales, with the idea that they're really rare and there's some significance to being a black dragonborn. When exploring an old site, he discovered a book which had an incantation to invoke Ouroboros.
- (Freyja) Diane wanted a barbarian to keep it simple and smash things. Since she wanted to be human, I suggested the variant human build. I offered her the Uthgardt tribes so she didn't have to come up with a barbarian culture. I also had the idea of a mission: the weather has been off, the shaman thinks the city people are causing it with magic, they need someone to investigate. She wanted the mission to be her idea, as a way of proving herself to her tribe and resolving some personal conflicts.
- (Silaqui) Ellen wanted a fighter/mage combo. I suggested the Bladesinger arcane tradition, which she liked. I was thinking she would be from Silverymoon, but she had picked the Far Traveler background and was from Evermeet instead.
- (Maendir) Todd went with a pre-generated ranger, wood elf, Beast Master, owl companion, archery. I had come up with a story for him: He was a ranger in the Neverwinter Forest who knew Reidoth and was recruited to help the folk hero defeat the dragon in Thundertree. (We skipped that part and didn't bother going back.) Seeing a dragon sparked an interest in exploring the world. To start off with, he's doing a favor for the noble, playing bodyguard to the noble's second cousin, who is looking for markets for the Phandelver mine in the interior.
- (Zook) Randy settled on a gnome sorcerer with wild magic. It was awakened when he was exploring some old ruins and now he's trying to find an explanation of what happened to him. Since gnomes were from hilly areas, I was thinking he could be from either the Dessarin Hills or the hills by Conyberry. When I heard about the ruins, I decided that he was poking around in the area of the old watchtower from the fallen Netherese empire, near the necromancer from Lost Mines of Phandelver.
- Richard couldn't make the session but when we discussed character ideas when finishing up LMoP, he wanted to do a magic/cleric combination. I offered to let him use Favored Soul, so he's going with that. Probably a tiefling. I'm looking forward to a winged tiefling.
Now that we knew more or less who everyone was, I needed to get them together, along with seeding some adventure hooks. Silaqui had been traveling all over, so I decided she had gone up along the coast to Neverwinter, and was turning inland for a change. So she was in a caravan that came across the Triboar Trail, which Maendir and Rosemary joined. Zook spent some time observing caravan traffic around Conyberry before hopping onto a caravan to Triboar.
I put the dragonborn in the High Forest near the Dessarin River. When he was grown, he went to Silverymoon to see if he could learn about his missing clan. They had info on dragonborn history, culture, anatomy -- a lot of academic material, but nothing about specific dragonborn. He decided to go to Waterdeep to find more dragonborn. Freyja was trying to find people who knew magic, but Silverymoon was too big a city for her. She met Su'uvarax on the road out of the city. She's from the Golden Eagle clan and decided his golden eyes were like the eagles, plus he seemed knowledgeable about magic and it was sad that he was missing his clan. So they travelled west together. Su'uvarax had a message from his patron: "Power gathers in the Sumber Hills. Investigate." That pointed him to the Long Road, and Triboar.
Thoril was working as a caravan guard along the Long Road, so that got him to Triboar. I had planned to put his barbarians in the High Forest with Su'uvarax, but Will had picked a different location. Still, elven barbarians in the region probably keep in touch periodically, so Thoril had heard of Su'uvarax.
I'm using Liliandra and Rosemary to get various people acquainted before they head south on the caravan. Nice development: Su'uvarax is looking for libraries, or booksellers, so that will tie in with the sage's books.
Plans:
- The party's caravan will be attacked by something weird. I'm going to do a little more research, but the current plan is fire snakes.
- Liliandra will tell them about the Haunted Keeps, as something that might interest Silaqui. Also, she arrived in Triboar with the delegation from Mirabar. Possibly some of their guards were dragonborn.
- The caravan from Conyberry that Silaqui, Maendir and Rosemary came across with turned south, while the characters lingered in Triboar. That caravan was attacked by the air cult. So when the party investigates Feathergale Spire, a halfling spice merchant from that caravan will be working in the kitchens.
Intro
I have been playing various RPGs (mostly D&D) since college. About 1.5 years ago, my twice-a-month group decided to try out D&D 5e and I volunteered to DM. We ran the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure with the pre-generated characters, because it was just a test. They liked it, we kept going.
When we finished, I wanted to give everyone a chance to play characters of their choice. There were some complaints about starting over again at 1st level -- that the previous year of play would be a "waste." So I compromised on starting at 3rd level, which is when most characters start to branch out.
It took me a while to settle on the material for the next campaign. I don't feel up to writing my own yet, so that meant published sources. I knew that Out of the Abyss was right out; our campaign before this left us bogged down in the Underdark and I'm quite sure most of the players had no desire to go back there. In the end, what tipped the scales toward Princes of the Apocalypse is that most of the players had done the classic Temple of Elemental Evil way back in the dawn of time, before I joined, and they had a great time. Once I found out that PotA was a re-imagining of those same themes, and that it was generally well-received, I made my decision.
My weekly game, where I'm a player, is doing a 5e adaptation of ToEE, so that will be an interesting point of comparison.
We're using Roll20. Most of the game is in-person, but people were bringing tablets and laptops, so it's actually easier than using figures. (My group really likes maps, so theater of the mind didn't do it for them.) Richard is finishing college, so this simplifies the tech challenges of sharing the field of play. We're gradually discovering the various features.
So the players are still getting accustomed to the system, the DM is still getting accustomed to running the campaign, and we're all still getting accustomed to the tool set. It's a big ol' voyage of discovery.
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