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.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
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.
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