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.

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.