Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 keithp Feb 01, 2009 20:20:41	I finally started running my Forgotten Realms campaign this afternoon. Two players who had to keep postponing dropped out and I found two replacements in a hurry. The five players are: Dragonborn warlord from Silverymoon. Human rogue from the Netheril Islands. Elf rogue (multiclass warlock) from Luskan. Drow ranger (multiclass fighter) from the local Underdark. (I counted this as Gray Vale.) Eladrin wizard from Myth Drannor. There are some interesting dynamics anticipated between the last two characters. We decided to have all of the characters in Loudwater for different reasons and then meet during the raid on Loudwater. In the Drow's case, she split off from a Drow raiding group in the High Forest, which was then ambushed and eliminated by elves. Since then she has been wandering on her own, but picked up the trail of the goblins on their way from the South Wood to Loudwater. So, she was outside the town when the raid began. Since the characters don't know each other, I dampened the warlord's leadership powers for this encounter. That combined with the characters being dispersed and unfamiliar with each other probably put them at a disadvantage. Furthermore, the players are learning their own characters and did not use all of their abilities to best advantage. On the other hand, I consistently forgot to use Goblin Tactics when the players missed the goblins with a melee attack. Altogether, it was a knock down fight in which all but the wizard were unconscious by the end, and all of the goblins but the hexer were dispatched. At the very end, the hexer alone escaped with the Horn Totem. We stopped with that for the day. The highlight of the battle came when the wizard, who speaks goblin, made a successful religion skill check to cast Ghost Sound convincingly sounding like a goblin god speaking out of the well. This caused alot of the goblins to pull out of Loudwater, although one of the warriors was close enough to Garwain's to complete his mission and grab the totem. Everyone had a good time. The players vary in age from 8 to mid-20s, while I am significantly older than that. But, we mixed pretty well. I am thinking of having the town watch arrest the unconscious drow, thinking that she is part of the attacking force. Indeed, she is carrying the letter ordering the attack, which she picked up while tracking the goblins on their way to Loudwater. Perhaps they will try to interrogate her in Goblin, which she does not speak. After this initial confusion, she'll be released and have an opportunity to meet her cobeligerents. I'm not sure how things will go after that. I don't know if this party will be so pleased to go after the goblins once they figure out that the goblins were recovering something stolen from them. Perhaps they will want to go and negotiate a truce. If they succeed, I will have to think about an appropriate XP award. On the other hand, they may be anxious about the possibility of the Ogre King's revival. If they decide to attack the goblin lair and are successful, I'll have to rethink the last encounter, given that the goblins already have the totem back. Perhaps the players will interrupt the ritual to revive the Ogre King. Has anyone else dealt with the goblins succeeding in their quest to recover the totem?
#2 korpus Feb 05, 2009 6:48:20	Perhaps for the Drow to prove her innocence she is ordered to recover the totem and can convince the others to come along. Other than that perhaps have the townsfolk angry at the raid of the Goblins want them to pay for their attack and employee the PCs into launching a counter-raid on the Goblin lair. Perhaps the Horn itself would be the payment?
#3 rauric Feb 05, 2009 7:21:58	Not a single defender in the group may mean that each combat may be a nail-biter. The warlord shall be earning his/her keep for sure ;).
#4 rinonalyrna_fathomlin Feb 05, 2009 9:40:16	Not a single defender in the group may mean that each combat may be a nail-biter. The warlord shall be earning his/her keep for sure ;). Good point. The group could use a fighter.
#5 keithp Feb 05, 2009 20:37:53	Thanks for all of the advice! Our next meeting will be Sunday after next, although I am going to have a separate meeting with the Drow character (my older daughter) first for her interrogation. My thought is that with all of the arrows that she was firing *into* the town, they will suspect that she was the goblin leader. But, cooler heads might soon realize that only goblins were hit by the arrows and that her own wounds were from goblin javelins. The other players may put in a good word. I'm wondering how the players will react when they work out that the goblins were recovering an item stolen from them. They may still be a bit peeved by the violence of the goblin attack. (I described all of the townspeople going about their morning business before the attack, so that each of those that the goblins cruelly cut down had at least some personality.) They'll also hear about goblin cattle raiding. But, my younger daughter, who is playing the wizard, has sometimes speculated that Tolkien's orcs may not be so evil, but just misunderstood. Since her character speaks goblin, she may be more interested in finding a peaceful solution. I won't push them one way or the other, but I suspect that there will be an interesting conversation about what to do. I am also a little concerned about the lack of a fighter. The two players that dropped out had a Dragonborn fighter and an Elf cleric. I suggested a fighter to the replacements, but didn't push it -- I was just glad that they could step in so quickly, and they put some creativity into their characters. I hope that the two rogues can leverage each other, perhaps by flanking big bad guys so that they both get sneak attack bonuses. Hopefully, the party will find ways to make strong offense make up for their weak defense.
#6 rauric Feb 05, 2009 21:26:07	In 4E it is not a 100% needed thing to have a defender it will just make the warlords job pretty tough. You can do what I do in my games and give the leader/healer players a little bit more love than the others in the items dept. There are lots of decent healing gear for leaders.
#7 _Mithreinmaethor_ Feb 09, 2009 16:21:39	Have you considered having the Drow actually be a Dark Elf one of the redeemed Drow? I kind of wish that they had given us info for both Drow and Dark Elves. Maybe change the Lloth Touched powers to Selune or Corellon Touched powers. Make Darkfire something like Moonfire and Cloud of Darkness into Cloud of Light etc.
#8 keithp Feb 09, 2009 19:44:00	Thanks, Mithreinmaethor. I have not considered those possibilities, since I don't have a clear understanding of what they mean. We probably shouldn't make too big changes in her story at this point, but what is the basic story with Dark Elves and Redeemed Drow?
#9 keithp Mar 09, 2009 17:54:49	I'm wondering how the players will react when they work out that the goblins were recovering an item stolen from them. They may still be a bit peeved by the violence of the goblin attack. (I described all of the townspeople going about their morning business before the attack, so that each of those that the goblins cruelly cut down had at least some personality.) They'll also hear about goblin cattle raiding. But, my younger daughter, who is playing the wizard, has sometimes speculated that Tolkien's orcs may not be so evil, but just misunderstood. Since her character speaks goblin, she may be more interested in finding a peaceful solution. I won't push them one way or the other, but I suspect that there will be an interesting conversation about what to do. We got to play a little more. After resting and cleaning up, the players tried to chat up Curuvar the Brazen, which was good for some comedy. Then they went to talk to Garwan, who loaned them a healing potion when he learned that they were going after the Goblins. (He couldn't offer the Horn Totem, as in the adventure write-up, since the Goblins got away with it.) Garwan sent them back to Curuvar, and Curuvar gave them limited information, as in the adventure write-up. I was a little disappointed that the players didn't react to Curuvar having stolen the totem from the Goblins as "a souvenir". But, I didn't mention my minor disappointment -- they should be the drivers, after all. The players went off to find the Barrow. They evaded the first false floor trap and found the secret entrance. We're now in the middle of the battle at the Slaughter Pit. Unfortunately, our youngest player had to be picked up by his parents on a strict time line, so we had to stop in the middle of the battle. As we continue the battle, I will have to remember to have the Hexer taunt them as thieves. I don't expect that this will make them go away, but may prep them to negotiate with the High Shaman at the end.
#10 Mr_Miscellany Mar 09, 2009 23:30:43	Hello KeithP, I am also a little concerned about the lack of a fighter. The two players that dropped out had a Dragonborn fighter and an Elf cleric. I suggested a fighter to the replacements, but didn't push it -- I was just glad that they could step in so quickly, and they put some creativity into their characters. I hope that the two rogues can leverage each other, perhaps by flanking big bad guys so that they both get sneak attack bonuses. Hopefully, the party will find ways to make strong offense make up for their weak defense. I was wondering how the party is doing in combat now? I've got a group of players I'm running through Keep on the Shadowfell, including one Eladrin Warlock (that can backstab) and one Human Rogue/Ranger multiclass. Those two players learned over time how to play of each other's actions for instant flanks (fey step/misty step) and deadly attacks. So I'm wondering your player's group is working together so far?
#11 keithp Mar 10, 2009 11:18:56	Hello Mr M., Below is a detailed answer, but the short answer is that the two adult players are picking up on how to cooperate faster. I'm most concerned about the youngest player figuring this out. Our previous session was all role-playing, but we spent a little time talking about tactics. I pointed out to them that the two rogues were the main damage dealers, provided that they could get combat advantage, and talked about the various ways that they could get it. In the session just finished, we got two rounds into the Slaughter Pit. In our two rounds so far, the Drow Ranger (MC Fighter) snuck in first, but was discovered. So she rushed up the slope at the first warrior. This attracted alot of damage, but didn't bring her down. The Dragonborn Warlord, realizing that she must lead from the front, gave the Ranger an inspiring word and rushed past her and acted as a defender. They don't share a language, but her actions were surely inspiring enough! This brought most of the Goblin attention down on her instead, bloodying her. In particular, she has a Goblin Skullcleaver on either side of her. The Human Rogue, a rapier wielding dandy, came up behind one of the Skullcleavers, scoring a critical hit with a Riposte Stike. In the next round, that Skullcleaver will turn his berserk rage on that Rogue, rather than the Warlord, so the Rogue will get a chance for another quick hit with combat advantage, thanks to the flanking Warlord. I discovered while wrapping up that this Rogue thought that Sneak Attack was an encounter power. He's pleased to learn otherwise! He will probably be less pleased when he discovers how viscious a bloodied Skullcleaver is. The players playing the Warlord and the Human Rogue are the only adults, and are a couple in real life. I think that they designed their characters to work in concert, so that the Rogue deals out damage and the Warlord helps give him the opportunities to do so. In particular, they're pleased with the current arrangement with the bloodied Skullcleaver between them. The Elf Rogue, played by the youngest player, used her Daily Easy Target against the same Skullcleaver with his hand crossbow. My sense is that this character is the most tempted to go it alone, rather than working in concert with other characters, and that using Easy Target straight away was a symptom of this. I'll keep an eye out for this in the future. I think that he is heading for the Hexer at the back of the room, but I'll make sure to remind him that he has combat advantage against the Skullcleaver for one round. The Eladrin Wizard, played by the second youngest player, encouraged by her great success with Ghost Sound at Loudwater is trying to figure out how to use Prestidigiation in some clever way to disorient the Goblins. Otherwise, since she is still down the slope and has a limited view of the battlefield, she has contented herself with some magic missles. In his next round, the Goblin Hexer will create a Vexing Cloud, which the players have not met before. One technical problem that I'm wondering about is that the Hexer will shout out instructions in Goblin, while taunting the players in Common. The Wizard speaks Goblin, and so perhaps I should pass her notes with what the Hexer is saying. All but the Ranger know either Common or Chondathan, so will at least get the gist of his taunts.
#12 keithp Mar 21, 2009 20:31:57	We finished up the Slaughter Pit encounter this afternoon. There were some very tough times, due mainly I think to the party's lack of a defender, but they pulled through. The warlord and the human rogue were both downed at one point, with a goblin skullcleaver standing over the warlord. But, the ranger, who was down to one hit point, took a second wind and an action point, slaying the skullcleaver. The warlord then rolled a 20 on her death saving throw, and used her remaining inspiring word to rouse the rogue. The party found the vexing could, well, vexing. But, the wizard got out of the cloud and made good use of her psychic spells (phantom chasm, grasping shadows and illusionary ambush) against the hexer and warriors in the rear. The elf rogue had intended to go after the hexer, but while charging accross the room fell through the false floor and into the pit with the starved dogs. Fortunately, she was trained in acrobatics and landed on her feet with no damage. I allowed her to complete her charge by attacking the dog right in front of her after she landed. She spent the rest of the battle tangling with the dogs. The hexer was Kerwig, the same hexer that had escaped from Loudwater with the horn totem. As I planned, I had him taunt the characters as thieves. They found this to be pretty rich, since they see themselves as recovering stolen property, not paying much thought to it having been stolen from the goblins in the first place. He got away again, and the party decided to rest up a bit before going after him. Three of them used their dailies and three of them used an action point. With Kerwig having escaped and having some time, I'll alter the Contested Hallway encounter to have Kerwig organize the two goblins there in an ambush.
#13 keithp May 03, 2009 9:59:02	I see that I haven't updated this for a while. Here is an update in a few parts. CONTESTED CORRIDOR Our intrepid adventurers were frustrated that Kerwig escaped the Slaughter Pit battle unharmed. Having let Kerwig out of their grasp twice, they were especially eager to get him next time. Having escaped, Kerwig alerted the Goblins in the corridor, but not in the room at the other end. The hexer in that room, Lerwig, is a rival of Kerwig's and Kerwig didn't want Lerwig to get any credit for solving a problem that Kerwig hadn't dealt with. So, Kerwig and the Blackblade hid down the stairs, while the Skullcleaver hid in the shrine. The plan was to let loose a Vexing Cloud when the adventurers got close to the stairs, and then have the Blackblade and Skullcleaver sneak into the cloud and attack by surprise. After resting up, the adventurers checked out the room. They examined the stepping disk, and even picked it up, but they couldn't make heads or tails of it. When they were ready, they sent the two rogues, Delan (the human) and Mialee (the elf), stealthily ahead. In spite of the Goblin's preparations, they didn't notice the rogues. But, once the rogues noticed what appeared to be forlorn looking dwarves shuffling around behind the porticullis, the party got excited and tried to talk to them, attracting notice. The ambush didn't go off as well as Kerwig had planned. The gruesome dwarf zombies wordlessly shuffled out and attacked, and the Goblins entered the frey. Delan got a critical hit with has rapier against the first zombie, so that it crumpled into a heap. The Eladrin wizard, Valenae, cast Grasping Shadows into the entrance to the crypt, so that one Zombie Rotter after another was brought down as it entered the region. The remaining Zombie kept trying to grab the rogues, but never succeeded. It's contribution was to give some flanking for the goblins, and attract alot of the player's attacks. Between Kerwig's hexes and the Skullcleaver, Mialee was dropped at least once and Delan at least twice. They kept getting roused with the Dragonlord Warlord's, Korinn's, inspiring words, and applications of the Heal skill. The Drow Ranger, Shivra, mostly provided support with her shortbow, moving in with swords late in the battle. At one point, Valenae taunted the Goblins by using Prestidigitation to create a replica of the Horn Totem, but they didn't fall for it. As the battle started to go against the Goblins, Kerwig weighed his options. The goblins were down to Kerwig and the bloodied Skullcleaver, and the party had all but Delan standing. The idea of going back to alert Lerwig was too much for Kerwig. Finally, when there was an openning in the battle, he yelled in Goblin that he was going to get help, and took two move actions to get on the other side of the party, while pulling the cloud along with him as fast as he could. Without the cloud for protection, the Skullcleaver was finally downed. Korinn went to Delan's aid, while the other three went after Kerwig. Kerwig was finally downed by Shivra, the Drow, with an arrow toward the end of the corridor. This led Valenae (an Eladrin) and Mialee (an Elf), to finally decide that Shivra was alright after all. In the mean time, Lerwig was aware that something was happening in the corridor, but wanted to wait it out, thinking that this would put him at an advantage over Kerwig. At this point, everyone but Shivra had used his or her daily. After the party explored and licked its wounds, Delan was out of healing surges, and not at maximum hit points. He has the fewest hitpoints in the party, and lacked good ranged options. So, Mialee lent him two of her precious shuriken. (She is very fussy about her shurken.)
#14 keithp May 03, 2009 10:08:49	FIRST PEEK AT WHAT'S NEXT The party debated about what to do next. They seemed to need an extended rest, but they were anxious that the Ogre King would be raised soon. Should they rest here? Should they camp in the woods? Should they press on? Finally, they decided to peek into the next room with Shivra (Drow Ranger) and Mialee (Elf Rogue) in front. Unfortunately for them, the enemy was waiting, and two Hobgoblin soldiers were quickly upon them. Both of them were hit, and thus slowed. The general cry was to run, and noone but Delan took a moment to make an attack, doing siginificant damage to Lerwig with a Shuriken. Delan was quickly downed by the Hobgoblin Archer, while others were kept moving with inspiring words and a healing potion. (There is now some controversy over whether one or both healing potions got used. I a ruling that one got used, and one got dropped -- they will find it later.) Korinn was clearly frustrated with the retreat, but she saw nothing to do but join in. She and Shivra took up the rear in the retreat, Korinn smarting from a stinging hex when Lerwig tried to pin her down. Shivra eventually used a Cloud of Darkness, which confounded the Hobgoblin Soldiers on her tail. This gave them the necessary breathing room to get up the ladder, and pull it up out of the hole. They left not knowing if Delan was captured alive or not. (In fact, he died.)
#15 keithp May 03, 2009 10:24:11	A NEW CHARACTER Delan's player really likes Delan. Delan is a colorful, even garish, ex-pirate who plays the lute. The player would like to play Delan again. However, he recognizes that the party lacks a defender, and although Delan was fun and often dealt significant damage with his rapier, he had a glass jaw. So, enter Thiassaeren, a diminutive Half-Elf Paladin of Tempus, raised by a Dwarven follower of Tempus in Chessenta. After some unfortunate event, he was banished from Chessenta and made his way west, accross the Graypeak Mountains, in search of his ancestral home of Mithril Hall. (Thiassaeren thinks of himself as a dwarf.) Passing through Loudwater, he hears about the Ogre King crisis, and heads off to the South Wood. On his way, a group of 4 Goblin brigands (one Blackblade and three Cutters) surrounded him and insisted on taking his handsome shield. But Thiassaeren fought them single handed, and drove them off after the Blackblade was bloodied. I'm a little unsure about how to handle XP here. His opponents were worth 175 XP. But, none of them were decisively defeated. So, my plan is to hold the XP in escrow until the end of the adventure, so he doesn't get XP twice for the same opponent. For comparison, the party fought Kerwig three times, but didn't get his full experience value for defeating him three times. When they did finally defeat him, I gave them a 50% bonus since it had taken on the aspect of a minor quest. Most likely, Thiassaeren will never see the goblins again, and he will get the 175 XP. But, I feel a little tight-fisted for not giving him XP right away for his single handed victory, although it will all come out OK in the end. In the mean time, the rest of the party put significant tracks between themselves and the Barrow before setting up camp. Thiassaeren found their camp, and met up with them. In the conversation that followed, I had Thiassareren make a religion check, which he did very well at. When the party faced the zombies, I had them all make religion checks, which they did poorly at, so I didn't give them any background information on the zombies. Thiassaeren, hearing the story, provided them with this background information from the Monster Manual. This (correctly) put into their heads that Delan might be made into a Zombie.
#16 keithp May 03, 2009 12:46:25	BACK TO THE BARROW My plan, as discussed in a different thread, is that if the party dilly-dallies, then they will encounter Delan as a zombie. If they move forward pretty single-mindedly, then they will catch Sancossug in the middle of a ritual to turn Delan into a zombie, complete with black candles and smelly incense. The party returned to the barrow about 14 hours after they left. The bodies of the slain goblins have been burned in the slaughter pit, along with all of the old zombies, except for one that has been reanimated as a rotter. I tried to think of a good for the Goblins to improvise to great the players on their return, but since I couldn't think of one, I guess that it must have slipped their minds. The party made no attempt at stealth reentering the barrow. (The new character has a stealth modifier of -4 !) So, the goblin warrior on guard noticed them right away and shouted the alarm. The goblins and hobgoblins formed up in the corridor, behind the second set of doors, with the two hobgoblin soldiers in front, and waited. The party formed a plan of drawing the enemy out into the Slaughter Pit room, by having Mialee move up to the doors and push open one of them. This largely worked. The enemy advanced with the intent that the Hobgoblin soldiers should form an impenatrable line in the corridor. But, they were drawn out with some divine challenges from the new paladin. Lerwig cast a vexing cloud over the main action, making it very hard to hit the Hobgoblin soldiers with attacks vs AC. But once things got mixed up a little, Mialee was able to get in a couple of nasty attacks with her shortsword, using Riposte Strike vs Reflex. Korinn (the Dragonborn Warlord) made good use of Myrmidon Formation early on, giving 5 THP to three other party members. There was one dramatic moment when Korinn, when was surrounded, decided to use her intimidate skill. I warned the players that I wasn't going to play intimidate by the book: A successful role wasn't going to make bloodied characters surrender in all situations. However, she succeeded in her roll against both soldiers, and I had them shift away from her, to the edge of the pit, and not make any attacks that round. On another occasion, she used Openning Shove to push one towards the pit. These kept them in more vulnerable positions. Valanae (the Eladrin Wizard) moved early to the opposite side of the pit so as to cast magic missles without being vexed by the cloud. She has been a favorite target of Lerwig's Blinding hexes, so has not always been so accurate. Once while not blinded, she used her Sleep spell which temporarily put out the Hobgobin Archer and the Goblin Warrior. Mialee encouraged Korinn to use Coup de Grace against the Goblin Warrior, but Korinn decided that this was not honorable. We had to stop early, since our 9 year old's mother came by to pick him up. But, the party has the clear advantage at this point. Having a defender in the party has made an enormous difference! Only Lerwig and the Hobgoblin Archer are still standing, although a Zombie Rotter is about wander in, mostly for effect. Korinn has been dropped once, and two characters have used their dailies (Valenae and Thiassaeren). But, most characters are not badly hurt.
#17 keithp May 24, 2009 18:49:48	WRAP UP We brought the adventure to a successful conclusion this afternoon. The party defeated the remaining enemies upstairs. I, the Dungeon Master, accidentally ignored the Paladin's mark on the last Goblin Hexer causing him enough radiant damage to do him in -- struck down by Tempus for not paying attention to the enemy that he was supposed to be fighting. The party explored the upstairs, finding some items belonging to their deceased friend Delan, as well as the +1 magic chainmail. They didn't think to look in the base of the Ogre King statue again, so they didn't find Delan's cash and healing potion. When they went downstairs, they found Sancossug in the middle of the ritual to raise Delan as a zombie. The party hoped to trick Sancossug into giving them the horn totem. Valenae offered to help him with the ritual to raise the Ogre King and suggested that her staff would work better than the totem. Sancossug didn't fall for this crude trick, but did explain what was involved in the ritual, leading Valenae to understand that the ritual would not work in any case. Safe in the knowledge that the Ogre King was not about to be raised, the party negotiated for the release of Delan's body in exchange for not asking for Delan's cash back. Sancossug assured them that he has no further quarrel with Loudwater, now that he has the totem. The party is very keen on raising Delan. I expect that their travels will bring them north to Silverymoon to accomplish this. This will also give Thiassaeran, the Half-Elf paladin raised by a dwarf, to travel to Mithril Hall, which he regard as the home of his fathers. Since there is one player for both of these characters, this will give him a chance to switch back to his favorite at the appropriate moment. In the mean time, that's it for our first adventure.