Run Date: April 25th, 2023
My third player managed to make it today, though she was running on zero sleep (night shift lyfe). There are a few more things to say, but I'll go over those later.
PCs
[Pa]: Dalinar (Lv2 Asn); Corvus Lv 2 Ftr, Amaram Lv1 Dw Cp
[Sa]: Amethyst (Lv2 Dw Vg); Rue Lv2 Cleric, Hatty Lv2 Mage
[Sh]: Moonlight (Lv1 SplSwrd); Ceriala Lv1 Cleric, Snarley Lv1 Ftr
"Living" World
We started the session by getting our third up to speed. She had a few questions about how various things worked. I answered what I could and explained others in play.
Last week, the players finished their first foray into the sunken temple of Sinister Stone of Sakkara. Due to 1:1 time, the group got back Sunday evening. They took a day to rest and sell their goods, turn in the head of Drusus, and rest. They received an invite to dinner from the Legate for Wednesday evening. The party promptly bathed and tried to search for some nicer clothes in the market, and I got the chance to explain Market Class and availability. There were certainly some, "This town doesn't have anything!" statements, but some lucky rolls didn't leave them barren.
The day of the dinner meeting, the crew wandered Türos Tem and familiarized themselves with the town. Hatty was charged with speaking with Malyn about the stones they'd left with him. She noted that they didn't have the cash to pay and negotiated a deal regarding bringing a buyer into town. Malyn's mood had lifted a touch since the group's last meeting and he took a liking to this weird little witch girl. He ended up offering her access to the library. Hatty, still having some hours before the dinner meeting, spent time checking what was on offer and found the clue regarding the rumors/history of the granite dome.
Meanwhile, the other two players and their henches explored the village, forum, and fort. They met several townsfolk along the way, one of which was particularly happy to have met the Warriors of Law, Slayers of Traitors. He didn't have much information to offer, but thanked them profusely. All in all, it seemed word spread fast and the group was enjoying this little boost in notoriety.
As evening settled in, the party headed to the Legate's villa. They were lead to a table and I got the chance to put the banquet tables to use. Too bad I forgot to write it down. The Legate, whose first meeting with the party was busy exasperation, was not overly friendly. Appetizers were served with a very "business obligation" tone; but a few drinks and the main course lightened the mood a bit. The Legate thanked them for dealing with the traitor, and asked if the party had heard the various rumors floating around the fort. The party relayed the information they learned from signs, and eventually discussed the nightmares. It was during this conversation that they learned that Malyn was known as "The Mishapen." This took Hatty by surprise given that he seemed a perfectly normal, if not slightly handsome sort. (I ran with the idea that Disguise Self is used "in public").
Dessert lead to more pleasant conversation regarding future plans, desires, and goals. It was accompanied by an Elven woman and her massive lion. Hatty's cat, whose name is now Felix, did not approve of the lion's rush to the table and roar. As the show wrapped up, the Legate returned to "business obligation" mode and bid farewell to the party: who have now become the Redwater Brigade.
The next day, the party purchased a horse for the knock-off wagon they'd retrieved from the sunken temple, suited up, and headed back into the Viaspen. Navigation was on point today, but the overall movement rate still slowed the party down. Thankfully, they avoided any encounters.
Once back at the entrance, Hatty sent Felix to scout the area. Alas, the cat was detected a second time. Felix rushed to Hatty's side and relayed what he saw while noises came from within. The party readied themselves for battle, with Amethyst preparing to be the first through the hole. She lit up a military oil (nicknamed molotovs now) and charged in to a volley of arrows; only one of which slipped by her shield and nicked her hip. The molotov hit home, however.
Within the room was a half-palisade and 4 Hobgoblins. They'd spotted the cat and readied to kill whatever came through the door, but didn't expect to be splashed and burned. As my luck goes, I roll terrible on HD and two of the creatures died, one from a direct hit and the other to splash. Before the others could flee, the party members rushed in and unleashed a volley of their own.
With their first obstacle taken care of, the party broke past the barricade and looted the bodies of their valuables. They then followed the same path as last week with the intent of seeing what was behind Drusus's barricaded door. Along the way, Hatty explained the frescos to Moonlight (as a means of getting the third player up to speed).
Moving eastward, the group ran into two encounters. The first was a swarm of stirges whose reaction roll was extremely high. The party chose to duck and let them pass, allowing the creatures to rush westward into darkness. "I wonder what they were running from?" As the group moved further east, they found out. A pair of Gnolls with glowing red eyes came out of the shadows; low, hostile, and foaming at the mouth. The party readied to fight, and with poor initiative the 9v2 was wrapped up immediately. Hatty considered cutting out the interesting looking eyes, as she did with last week's bat ears. Over the course of last week's downtime, I looked up the monster parts rules and found that such things require certain skills (butchering, alchemy, etc). She didn't have any so we moved on.
As the party entered the old brigand territory, they noticed just how cold everything had gotten. The smoky torches were no longer lighting the chapel and things were still. However, halfway down the hall to Drusus's former lair, they heard a shout, "Halt!" Something called from the darkness and the party fell into their normal MO. A short conversation, and another good reaction roll, and the players had talked their way into the former brigand lair; now repopulated by hobgoblins. The shaman handled much of the talking as the players negotiated passage beyond the throne. The chieftain was sitting in his throne listening to the conversation. Given his mood, he agreed to allow passage for a fee of 25gp. "Each or for everyone?" It was everyone, despite the usual assumptions. What can I say, I don't know what's worth what.
With their passage paid, the group tore off the nailed boards and entered a rundown room with a descending staircase. Hatty paused for a moment to look over the old fresco, pondering if it was a tale of the past or a vision of the future. The party then headed down the stairwell to the second level. I have to say, I am terrible at running modules; partially from lack of preparations and partially from flipping to find things.
Upon descending a level, the group found a dead end. One wall was rock and the other had a line of iron bars. The group leaned their torches out to get a better look at the chamber beyond and one of them spotted the glint of gold in an old pile of bones. Since none of them could squeeze through, Hatty sent Felix to fetch one of the bits of jewelry. This fresh meat alerted something around the corner and another fight was on.
Felix, bless the little guy's soul, won out on initiative and booked it to safety with the little gold collar in tow. The other members prepared a volley of arrows and bolts, expecting something to come from the cavern. Unfortunately, the creatures swung around the corner and slammed against the bars. Their lithe frames let them reach through clawing and snapping. The monstrous ghouls had swollen, parasitic tongues shaped like a leech. If this was LFG, I would have suffered a lot of counter-attacks. Damn near every roll was a Nat 1. Stack that on some high AC targets and my crappy HD rolls (3HP, btw) and it makes for a short fight. That said, the ghouls did manage to paralyze and chip a couple of the party members. After the undead were dealt with, one of the clerics used Cure Light Wounds to cleanse one of the paralyzed members. Hatty, unfortunately, had to be carried.
The party decided to head back to the main floor, and found that the door had been barred behind them. They gave a few knocks and announced their presence. When the door opened, they found themselves surrounded by the hobgoblins. There was a tense discussion about what was below, and another demand for payment (50gp this time). The party paid their toll and even tossed in another 25gp for some information. The Shaman, who escorting them out of the lair, mentioned The Lady Below. When asked about advice for avoiding her ire, he told them to GTFO and not challenge her.
The players headed back toward the entrance and rested some time while Hatty's paralysis wore off. Zero encounters, btw. During their wait time the group, unhappy with their situation, plotted to return to the hob territory and kill them. There was discussion of resources, approach, and lighting. The plan came down to charging in and launching military oil on anything they could spot to kill and create more light.
Upon returning to chapel, just before the hall to the lair, the group set up their battle lines. The hob sentries spotted the light, but otherwise watched curiously. Amethyst immediately rushed in and threw a molotov. While the creatures were ready for something, it wasn't this. One of them burned up before getting a shot off, and the other dropped as the rest of the party pushed around and unleashed a volley. A series of Nat 20s resulted in everything in sight dying (low initiative, low hp roll, 3 deaths). As soon as the initial wave ended, the party could hear the clattering of the hobs setting their own battle lines.
Amethyst was the first to make it into the room, a second cocktail ready to fly. She acted simultaneously, landing a solid hit on a shadowed group of hobs. As it flew through the air, however, she was pelted with a slew of arrows and dropped. Unfortunately for the monsters, they too lost a couple more members. With this, the rest of the party started rushing down the hall.
My low initiative rolls finally had a use. As the group rushed down the hall to prepare for next rounds volley, the Shaman had begun casting sleep. He rolled high enough to knock out half the party. In the interim, another volley went out against the players and the Chieftain rushed to engage Dalinar. Too bad he missed. Point of note here; The shaman has two spells in his book (in the form of scrolls): Choking Grasp and Magic Mouth. I could not find Choking Grasp so randomly rolled a new one (Sleep).
Given the conditions of the previous round, morale was in order: the Hobs would fight on. This escalated to "to the death" given their cornered position. More on that later, though. This next round resulted in a chain slapathon to wake the PCs, and Hatty putting the Shaman to Sleep herself. One of the henches rushed up to engage the Chieftain. They landed simultaneous blows, but the Chieftain had more experience and felled the poor guy. With that he attempted a cleave on Dalinar and failed again. Another couple shots and a mix of chip damage and Nat 1s.
The final round resulted in the clean up of all but the Shaman, who had been slapped awake by one of the leftover hob sentries just before he was peppered with bolts. Seeing as he was the last alive, the Shaman began to beg for his life. The party, being merciful, took the chance to interrogate him. He answered more questions regarding The Lady, marked down a hidden treasure further in the dungeon, and more or less kowtowed to most of their demands. The only one he refused (partially because time was up, and partially because "Nope") was guiding the party directly. He explained the other beastmen territories, or at least what other creatures to expect. Dalinar was extremely suspicious of the shaman lying, but alas there is no Insight skill.
Session time was up so we fast-tracked everything else. The group collected (no encounters, btw) all the spoils of their kills (RETCON: I forgot I moved the lair treasure here and didn't distribute it... whoops). They loaded up their utterly untouched cart and headed home. Navigation was still on point, and the party even had a couple of (bypassed) encounters. The first were some Wyverns that didn't notice the group, and the other was a hydra guarding its lair some ways away.
Afterword
Where to start? While the players often say things in jest, part of my job is trying to read the table. There appears to be a level of impatience alongside the phrase of, "Let's get this done so we can go back to our old characters/LFG." I don't take this as a fault of the system, but the excitement to return to the world, events, and sandbox we were already playing in. I can't fault the players for that, as I have taken many shortcuts and put up certain barriers under the banner of "Experiment."
You may be wondering why the hobgoblins were in the bandit lair. 1:1 time passage plus The Lady Below's (different player) orders. She assigned the hobs to keep an eye on the entrance because they'd spotted the PCs last week. This week, reaction rolls were good enough that the hobs were "playing friendly." Perhaps I should have been more direct and had them ambush the party as they came back from the ghouls, but RRs had me leaning toward spies/two-faced play. Had they been weaker? I'd imagine they would have been captured outright. TLB just recruited some hill giants so I look forward to seeing where those get placed.
Reaction Rolls. Honestly, I still feel like I use these too much or at inappropriate times. Improvising the narrative is actually a lot of fun for me, but sometimes I feel like I take it too far. For example, should the stirges has ignored the party? The RR was high enough, the Stirges even had surprise, but should the animal instincts have taken precedence? How about the Hobs? I roll a lot of things that somehow end up in the players' favor. I'm very much a "the dice fall where they will" person, but questioning whether or not I'm over-using them. At the very least, their luck will run out sooner or later. (Also before it's suggested, I do modify the RRs for various reasons, rep/alignment/etc being common +1/-1).
Rewards
PC: 505gp/566xp
HM: 252gp/283xp
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