Ok so on the last session the group was facing a Yeth Hound. After considering their options they retreated and closed the door. Exploring the dungeon they came upon an Elf and a Human locked up in dungeons prison cells. The two, one an exotic dancer the other a Ranger, decided to join the group.
They managed to slay Lyrie and Orik who where barricaded in a room leading down to the next level. The exotic dancer they freed earlier found the pair of earings he was looking for, but decided on staying with the group for now.
Moving on they backtracked to a section of the dungeon that was roughly hewn out of rock. The floor was smoothly polished with dead corpses of birds and a few goblins. Inside was a deadly tentacle monster that tried to grapple the dancer and inject its deadly venom. Luckily his agile body and dance moves saved his life. Once the monster was slain, the Yeth Hound from earlier finally managed to break out of the chapel. He brought a friend with him and they proceeded to box in the group by covering their escape routes.
(intermission)
Wow it has been a long time since the group did that fight. (It is July 21 right now) I am trying to figure out why I paused to finish it. Oh well. Let me see what I can remember.
The group managed to deal with the two Yeth Hounds. There was some issue with the group on what they should do. A couple of them decided to take on the Yeth Hound closest to them. the others not really able to get a line of site for ranged/spells just stood back. I had to come in and make a few suggestions on what I would do if I was the Rogue, Wizard, and Ranger. Once they figured out their differences and went with the flow things worked out. The Yeth Hounds bit the dust pretty easily. Their high AC just made it hard to hit them. The key damage dealing was the wand of flame and the exotic dancer (aka acrobatic rogue) to bypass the DR they had.
After dealing with the hounds they moved back towards the stairs down. On the way there they set off a burning hands trap CR3 I believe. I rolled all ones on damage. (sigh) With no real damage they just kept running. The dancer (Luke who has a lot of RP experience) took the lead and being the highly skeptical rogue he was searched everything and was rolling hot all night. My terrible poker face didn't help make it any harder for him either. He did manage to avoid the trap leading into the corridor right outside Nualia's room. They figured out how to disable it and moved on.
The fight with Nualia went pretty good. There were a few exciting rounds there. To compensate for the groups larger size I added a couple more Yeth Hounds. The Bard (Will) seemed to always try and get in the front of the fight. Even though she was only wearing cloth armor and using a whip, she managed to disarm Nualia while surving a few rounds. The others bullied their way in and took her out then the dogs. The Rogue bit the dust making it the second PC to die. After divying up the phat lewtz they continued their search.
It didn't take long for them to figure out how the faux stack of gold coins worked. Once they gained entrance to the secret area they found the key to the Barghest room. This had to be the best part of the whole thing for me. The Elite Barghest was THE toughest NPC in the whole adventure. When they opened the door the only thing they saw was the candles and the smoking pit in the middle. The dancer, apparently with a weak bladder, decided to piss on the unearthly fire pit in the middle. As soon as he whiped it out the beast struck. One hit later for 20+ damage the rogue is on the floor bleeding to death. His insides spilling out of the large gash on his side. Completely spooked now the group tries to figure out what is going on. The Barbarian heads in, the Cleric pulls the body out, and Wizard cast see invis. Uh, oh. The group makes a hasty retreat taking only a few hits while closing the door behind them. Damn.
The room with the shades went to easy. A well rolled Turn Undead made them a non-threat. The secret room which led to the old treasury was easy to find. After searching the room they see the large golden helmet in the water. The Bard, did I mention always in the lead looking for trouble, throws a rock at the helmet. After a few seconds the helmet spins around to face her. At this point the group remembers the large picture drawn on the wall by the goblins and they are showing a little fear. Alianna tries to speak a few different languages thinking she can reason with the giant head. the others are near the other hallway/stairs leading to the back of the chamber. A call of initiative makes it harder for them to get there. The fight went as expected with the giant crab dealing crushing damage to Alianna while the others tried their best to get there and help her out. Just before they could try and heal her the crab scored a decent hit and cut her in half. After that the crab went down easy.
The group divided up the coins on the bottom and headed back to town. At the news of Nualia's demise and the clearing of Thistletop the town threw them a celebration. Statues of the group where brought in to commencerate their achievements. The group was also given two magically enchanced items for their efforts. This was done because they never would have beaten the Barghest and gotten the spoils, and because their gear was very magic lite. At 4th level they had no magic weapons or armor. Everything was masterwork or silver.
Well that is about it. The next book will be converted to 4e because we like it. I should have had it done by now, but I just haven't done it. I hope this weekend I can get the 4e DMG out and do some studying.
Well I missed posting the last session. It was ... interesting ... to say the least. I still find it odd that five level 3 PCs run from one bugbear. Oh before I forget again, I swear Ray had some prior knowledge about the bridge trap. Let me start at the beginning (right after a brief recap).
So the party cleared the top floor of Thistletop. No small endeavor on their part. They went back to town to stock up on potions and rest up a day before heading back.
Ok, now on to the current, well as of the last session, situation. I purposefully left the top of Thistletop on the battle map. I started everyone on the main land side of the bridge. Hoping everyone would pile across. Of course like everything in life nothing ever goes right. First the rogue, Matthel, hides and moves silently across the bridge solo. He checks things out doing the normal listen and spot checks. Nothing comes up because the top is still clear. Next the others cross over one at a time. During this time Ray keeps saying lets go over one at a time. Ugh, who leaked him the info!!! After discussing what they are doing for a few minutes everyone but the Wizard is over the bridge. I don't know what Matt was thinking about leaving him there but I guess that's how faith rolls. Right after the last one leaves the Wizard by himself I call for initiative. Matt rolling lucky early gets 1st action with his Wizard. I didn't let the Bugbear, whom I buffed up another Ranger level for double shooting, get a surprise round. My hopes where to get everyone over the bridge to attack him at once so it could collapse. The Wizard attempts to cast sleep which fails due to the Bugbears higher HD, 5 to be exact. He next moves his 6 squares over the bridge to the others. There were a couple of PCs that went before the Bugbear, but they all stayed on the other side. The Barbarian, big bad mofo with a greatsword, said he isn't crossing the bridge. Ok big guy I got something for you. Instead of Elf bane arrows I substituted Sleep arrows. With the bug bears double shooting feat he managed to score a hit on the wizard causing him to fall asleep in the middle of the bridge. To cut this a little shorter, the next 3-4 rounds the PCs stayed on the other side. Will was the only one who had the balls to try and run up and do something. He ran to the bridge tried to attack or cast a bard spell, not sure on that, before running back. The next turn the Barbarian or Cleric, both still deathly afraid of the bridge, tied one end of a rope to the bridge post and tossed the other end to Will as he ran by again. This time Will ran to the Wizard and lassoed him with the rope. The cleric pulled them back across. This whole time my Bugbear Ranger is pelting them with arrows. He has a good To Hit and is steadly knocking HPs off the Barbarian and the others. FINALLY, I let them make spot checks to tell the bridge is rigged to collapse. Will's Bard ties it up to prevent it from falling and they make it over. After a few rounds the bugbear is toast. They moved into the top level everyone and their momma rolling spot and listen checks. With 5 PCs there is usually always a 18-20 rolled. Nothing surprises these guys apparently. The stairs where supposed to have CL3 Burning hands traps set there but it took so long to do the Bugbear fight I forgot all about it. Moving into the 1st dungeon level they skipped all rooms that didn't have noise in them. After just a few minutes they were already at the Chapel with the Yeth Hounds. The AP originally calls for 2 Yeth Hounds which I bumped up to 3. While looking over the stats I realized no one had a silver weapon to overcome its DR/10. I scalled this back to 2 Hounds, eventually taking it to 1. This is where they are at currently. Combat has only gone to round two with the Yeth Hound.
Some notes on this encounter:
1. Ray's Cleric and Barbarian would not cross the bridge whatsoever. Even when Matt's Wizard and Will's Bard where on there at the same time. It was at this point I basically let them make a spot check just to get the battle going. The bugbear was getting close to running out of arrows.
2. This one fight took way to long because Ray's hesitance at jumping into the fray. To clarify, the fight between one Level 2 Bugbear Ranger and 5 PCs in a well rounded group took over 3 hours. Yikes. I will say in their defense we are still working on the rules, etc. This is the first game some of us have played in years if not decades. Trying to look up some rules and the ensuing discussion takes up precious time.
3. I didn't mention it in the game summary, but they left a room of Goblin babies alone because that would be wrong. They open the next door and slaughter the Goblin women. Matt was the only one who wanted to kill the babies. I have to agree with him. With no one to care for them they will just die a horrible prolonged death. Well at least for the ones that gets eaten by the toughest one until he dies.
4. The Thistletop dungeon is comprised of many small rooms with a whole lot on nothing going on. Maybe I should do something about that but the AP has decent descriptions and some rooms have important hints or other items that can be used. The group was getting tired and wanted to get to the end. Little do they know there is another whole level to explore. They completely missed the rooms of the human occupiers. This would have given them some clue as to what they will be facing.
Well that's it for now. As soon as I get a chance I will post Saturdays upcoming session. Peace!
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I Am A: True Neutral Human Bard/Sorcerer (2nd/2nd Level)
Ability Scores:
Strength-10
Dexterity-11
Constitution-13
Intelligence-9
Wisdom-14
Charisma-11
Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.
Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Primary Class:
Bards often serve as negotiators, messengers, scouts, and spies. They love to accompany heroes (and villains) to witness heroic (or villainous) deeds firsthand, since a bard who can tell a story from personal experience earns renown among his fellows. A bard casts arcane spells without any advance preparation, much like a sorcerer. Bards also share some specialized skills with rogues, and their knowledge of item lore is nearly unmatched. A high Charisma score allows a bard to cast high-level spells.
Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)
Ok, so I know I am not the most organized person around. So my goals for the next session are:
- Organize stats of any NPC they will can fight. Right now I have 4 of the last 6 bosses already printed out on The Game Mechanics free monster cards. I need to add the hirelings to the sheets.
- Use the free item cards I get from Paizo on each of my shipments. These are tracked in a spreadsheet on Google Docs. I only keep cards for items that are magical or quest related. They have a number on the back which is noted in the spreadsheet. Once they ID the item I tell them what it is and they write it on the back. Not game breaking but it looks cool to dump a few of them in a small treasure chest.
- Keep better track of the game environments. As noted before I didn't trigger the bridge trap and failed to use the Ripnugget encounter as I should have.
Well, they finally managed to clear the top of the island. First off some mistakes I made:
1. The rogue climbed up on the roof and listened at the guard posts. My first mistake of the night. The section the horse is in is uncovered so he should have been able to see the goblin dogs and could have possibly unleashed ranged death upon them.
2. I missed drawing some doors on the map. This didn't make a huge impact but kind of blows it for immersion.
3. In Ripnuggets room I only put him there on the throne. Rayzo entered from the eastern door, saw him and waited for me to call initiative rolls. I didn't and let him know that Ripnugget was not acting aggressive in any way and wanted to parlay. They move into the room spreadout and the bard moves 4-5 spaces south of him. As soon as they are done initial moving I place all the other gobs in the room as if they were hiding behind the pillars. The mistake is, the warchanter had a wand of silent images and is supposed to hide everyone behind it until they get close. grrrrrr.
4. After defeating him they prepared to enter the courtyard with the goblin dogs. Remember mistake #1. Yeah, this is when I tell them the courtyard is open to the sky. The group looks at me, "why didn't you say that earlier we could have ranged them to death." Since it was getting late for Will so he asks, "can we have a couple of us climb up and just assume we shoot them down with ranged?" At this point I am feeling dumb with the mistakes I have made and say sure. Moving along they hit the latrine room and the rogue makes his search check for secret doors find the treasure room, doesn't search the chest for traps, and tries to open it. The trap misses it's attack. The others have the key and open it. I didn't even ask which way they turned it. Mainly because I forgot to, but afterwards figured what was the point. The trap was triggered. They would have just bashed it in.
5. After clearing the top they go back for the horse which Will calmed down with some food from one of the barrels. They left Thistletop to head back into town. Um, the bridge is still trapped and I planned to trigger it. Except I forgot about it.
Whine, rant, whatever, here it comes. I have no DM'ing experience whatsoever. Generally for rules I favor the group just so we are not stuck spending an hour looking something up and discussing if a dancing lights spell can blind someone. (real issue that came up) After the play session I spend the time looking it up and let the group know my findings. So when it comes up that I decide something on the fly that goes against the group I have to defend my ruling. It wastes time and causes friction. Part of this is my fault as I seem to be unprepared for the groups intellect in doing things. I know that comes with experience but it is frustrating. The rest of the fault I feel is with the ones that want to argue back on the ruling. I had to put my foot down when Matt wanted to argue that the dancing lights would blind someone. He argued his maglite thrust into your face would blind you. Really? A 4 D cell Maglite puts out 23,000 candle power. That means 23,000 candles would have to be 1 foot away from your face to get the same effect. Dancing Lights puts out light similiar to 4 lanterns or torches. A kerosene lantern puts out 12-25 candlepower of light. So yes, a Maglite will blind your ass. A torch/lantern will not. It will be annoying to have four of them float just in front of your face, but that's it.
*end rant/whine*
To make up for my errors last time I will be planning things out as much as I can. Since the bridge wasn't trapped for them last time it will be this time. The main gate is closed and lookouts have been posted. Once they realized what happened topside he had the gate barred and the watchposts manned by two goblin commandos and a bugbear in each. Seriously pissed that Sandpoint sent adventures up and slayed Ripnugget, Nualia had the bugbear fortify the fort while she went down to pray to Lamashtu. She knows it is only a matter of time before the group comes back and will be planning something for their return should the bugbear prove useless.
I wanted to post about the Pathfinder Miniature line. The Valeros I ordered came in last Thursday and he looks awesome. I know he is the fighter Iconic, but I think he looks more like a badass ranger with his dual weapons and quiver/bow strapped to his back. I was so impressed I checked their site and ordered all the others that are out so far. They were listed as backordered so I thought I had a week or two before they came in. Uh, no they shipped the next day. Sorry babe, didn't mean to spend $120 on D&D this month. I won't mention the $25 on a WoW character move or the $15 on the second account my son plays on.
So this past Saturday's game marks the first PC death. It just so happened to be my 11 y.o. son who played Zeldax fierce warrior. I think he was in search of some princess and a triangle shaped key. I am kidding about that last part.
Anyway, the other guys are much older in their 30's so the maturity level is pretty big. From the first day he started with us I noticed this arrogant attitude from him at the table. Now I normally would deal with this as soon as it came up, but I wanted to see how the others re-acted. I can tell Matt was getting a little annoyed with Ray and Will trying to help him out a little. My son didn't seem to pick up on the hints to just sit back and learn. Which brings us up to the last game. The group just started at the maze of briars at the Thistletop entrance. They take the first path to the left which eventually leads to a passage left and the other ahead on the right. The others are trying to figure out what they should do. Everyone rolls listen and spot checks. My son walks right on by to check out the passage ahead on the right. I call for initiative checks and everyone groans abit and looks at him. I try to explain that he walked right by an open doorway without first checking it out. The encounter was way to easy for the others as they bottlenecked the doorway and slaughtered a bunch of refugee goblins and a few extra dogs I threw in.
Fast forward a few halfways/rooms and the bard spots a room with 6 goblin dogs chewing on some remains. Surprise round give them a tine bit of advantage. The doorway is still narrow but this time it is 10ft wide and the dogs have 50ft movement. They engage the party quickly while they are hampered by a 4ft tall hallway. My son who is a brave little guy runs up backed up by Rayzo (Ray's Barbarian). Of course now he has blocked the others from getting any shots off which annoys them as well.
A couple things I should point out:
1. My son started after the group so his fighter is 3-400 exp behind them and still level 1. The others hit 2nd making them more effective in combat.
2. The Wizard (Matt's) didn't memorize any offensive spells. At least not any that he used. He is basically a crappy ranger.
Ok back to the post; My son takes a couple hits bringing him dangerously low. Ray moves his cleric up but decides to hang back a square and throws a CLW on this Barbarian. The next turn my son goes down by one of the dogs. The others start shooting above his corpse. He looks at me like I murdered our dog. Then looks at the others with a smile and asks for someone to bring him back alive. Matt looks at him and says something about them not raising him and he is lucky they don't roll his corpse down the hole they just passed. He gets up and I tell him to roll up another one.
Now I try to let my kids work their problems out and if there are any questions or I feel I should intervene I will. So I let him go and continue on. After getting the others into the next encounter I head up to talk to him. He looks like he is about to start crying. I try to comfort him as best as I can. To me it is nothing but a game and making the characters is one of the best parts of it. To him he lost a part of him. Part of our discussion centers on his actions. I try my best to show that you are part of a group not 5 individuals doing whatever you want. Another thing I discuss with him is his attitude. I feel I got through to him. He wasn't as upset afterwards and we are planning on fleshing out Penelo his female Cleric. I can't wait.
Oh wait, about the game? Well Gogmurt or whatever his name is was a challenge for them. I will say Matt's Wiz is a bitch with his crossbow. Before I could move the Goblin druid back out of combat into the surrounding briars he scores a hit and kills him. Great. I have a few things up my sleeve. One of which is the whole Goblin camp is aware of their arrival. Once we meet back up this Saturday they will hear the alarm ringing. MWUAHAHAHA. um yeah, sorry.
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