Four Winds Bar Campaign

The party today was Torye, Saphy, Ame, Lock and Unkhe, all played  by there own player.  Game was at Torye’s house, given that the FLGS was closed today due to an outbreak of Conestoga.  No big, we will be back at The Original Game Shop next week.

Any rate, they did the encounters in more or less optimal order, i.e, the hit the northern Zombies first, which turned into a longer fight than normal because right about the time that they had more or less beat up on the first bunch of zombies, the other mob of them arrived.   Due to the party being slightly over level, I made a few changes to the zombies.  One of the Zombie warriors was made “Elite” and all the non-minon zombies were given 60 hit points.  That’s a new standard rule, for the campaign, just BTW.  Makes up for the zombies slow movement and  crappy, I repeat, Crappy, defenses.  Does make them a big bag-o-hit points however.  I also added two Gravehounds, to the southern bunch of zombies, because I likes me some zombie doggies.   Party was pretty freaking beat up at the end of those “two” encounters.  I didn’t feel like running yet another zombie fight is tight quarters, so I eliminated the monsters from the hidden room.  Torye got the riddle in her first reply.  As it happens, no one wanted the armor, so it’s going to be sold when they get out, which will trigger my other house rule about resell value (More about that later, plus a GCL rant!)

The Skeleton encounter was a tough fight.  I tweaked the hell out of it, however.  The two bigger ones were made into flaming skeletons and the minions replaced with normals.  The spawning effect was changed from 2 every round for 5 rounds to 2 once every 5 rounds, which given that it should have generated a total of 10 minions, over five rounds, the had, instead, 2 normals, which is damn close, XP wise to the “book” value.   The fact that the encounter had 10 normals vs 18 minions, of course is part of the over all power up of the encounter.  They ended with the Sir Keegan, ’skill challenge’ which they passed, with a total of only one failed check, which isn’t to bad.   So, next week, it’s on to level two.

That’s the good news.  The bad news I’ve got a player that isn’t working out well.  As I said last time one of my players I strongly suspect of having read the module or at least had some spoilers.  Cases in point this week:

1. Bought a magic item designed mainly allow you get a bit of an edge in getting out of a Grab attack (i.e a zombies’ primary special feature).  This ability (i.e getting out of grabs, was meantioned to another party member while I wasn’t present, I have been told.) Didn’t bother telling me about it, which isn’t a good idea.
2. Re-factored his character (at level up) to not have streetwise but diplomacy instead, making him, instead of the paladin the “spokesman” for the party.  Didn’t bother to tell me this either, until it came up during the skill challenge with Sir Keegan.  Again, changes to characters with out telling the DM, even if legal changes, isn’t a good idea.
3. His non-divine powered character wanted to spend an action point to kneel and pray at an altar of a God other than his own IN COMBAT WITH FLAMING SKELETONS WHILE HE ONLY HAD ONE HIT POINT LEFT! The fact that this action would end the encounter was not, repeat not, hinted at in any way shape or form by me at any time.    It, however is mentioned in the adventure, duh.

I’m going to have private speaks with him next week, and I hope I can save him. He’s not getting along with others for icing on the cake. Sigh.  Any rate, level two is more or less a full redesign, so it should be fairly easy to spot if he has, in fact, read the adventure or is just a damn good guesser.

1st up, the party all ganged up on the Ocher Jelly and nailed to the ground in short order.  Given that it’s a 3rd level elite, it shouldn’t take that long.  Plus they did use a crap load of daily powers on it.  The first round, however was EPIC FAIL by every one.  The only hit was Torye (note the ‘e’, makes her ‘real’) with one of her twin shots, and it was close to a miss…

Next, the find the Blue Slime.  Who ever thought that a monster with a Intelligence of 1 should be a solo monster is just a bit crazed in the head.  This beat the party up quite a bit, but they got it, finally.  Dazed plus weakened is a bitch, this is really true when your whole party can’t seem to make saving throws for squat.  Dual attacks plus action points is fun as well.  The idea of what amounts to a slime dragon is a bit odd.

At this point, they decided to go back to town, to re-gear, more than any thing else.  They find the gates closed and find out that “The Dead have Risen”.  Off to the grave yard they go.  One fight with 12 skeleton minions, 2 fast moving zombie dogs and an elven archer later, the get the note about “deal with the adventurers I’m close to finishing etc.”.

At this point, in real life, I blew up at one of my players.  I strongly suspect he has read the adventure, because he

1. Knew that one of the slime monsters had an ‘at bloodied’ effect that was bad.
2. As soon as I read the flavor text of the note he said “It’s a fake note.”, which, I’ll grant, it is, at least in part. .
3. Several other things he has said and or done leads me to think this.

He back peddled a round why he knew details, and given that this is a popular (i.e it’s the first) 4th Ed adventure, it’s possible his reason is true,  but looks like I’m going to have to make some changes to the adventure as written.   Course I need to to do that any way because this party ran the International D&D adventure PLUS “Kobold Keep” from the DMG, which makes some of them higher level than they should be at this point.  Cue evil DM’s Laughter…..

So, from this point on, I’m not going to be putting spoiler tags, in general, around monsters etc for the Sunday game, because I’m not going to be running Keep on the Shadowfell as such.  I’ll keep more or less to the plot, but the 2nd level and the tomb area of the 1st level just got an upgrade.  Some things will still get spoiler tags, if I think it’s something that should.   Wednesday’s games will start getting spoiler tags, once I start doing the “Real” Basements and Lizards adventures.

As to the Kill list?  Well, I didn’t keep it, Tory-with-an-e-keeping-it-real kept it.  I’ll post if if she gives it to me, hint hint.

Course, she may end up with an account on here, for the Basements and Lizards stuff, from a player’s point of view.

OK The Sunday game group has finished with the goblin tribe (encounters 1-4 of the keep), plus dealt with the rats in the cave (area 11), but game stopped when they saw the Jelly.

Wednesday game has been more or less setting up for testing.  More about it later, an I promise to start posting game results on Sunday evenings or Thursday mornings, depending on the game.

Did not have a “4th of July Weekend” game, and the kill sheet for last week’s game is in the other car, which is 15 or so miles from here. As soon as I get it I’ll post the kills.

The party has actually entered the keep! Got through encounter one and two, with minimal drama. More when I have my notes.

Tory, or more accurately Tory’s player is going to be pissed at me. I miss laid the kill list card she kept for me.

Opps.

Part 2’s party was the same as Part 1 (Tory, Saffy, Ame, ‘Lock and Unkhe)

The party decided, after running away from encounter 4 (the Kobold chieftain’s lair) to spike the door into that room shut and take a long rest. This, of course meant that the Kobolds were at full strength when they went back in. The party did fairly well against them, but two Dragonshield’s managed to run out. The two wounded Dragonshields took up a defensive wall in the hall way leading to the lair of the white dragon.

I was being nice, and made that the 2nd encounter, i.e. a milestone, which means they had 2 actions points each, going into the dragon encounter, other than Saffy, who had used one of hers fighting the kobolds.

Yes, I am aware that by the RAW you can only use one action points per encounter. I’m allowing one per round.

The dragon made a so-so stealth roll, however every one other than Tory made a crap perception roll, so the “surprise” round was Tory vs the dragon. Tory roles a 24 initative. Dragon a 21. Tory un-fucking-loads on the dragon, using daily power “Beartrap jaws”, spends an action point and does a dual shot on it. Dragon “charges” the party (well, moved 2 squares, was slowed) and breaths on the party, spends an action point and does the frightful presence thing. I miss read the rules on that, so the party was dazed, not stunned. I hand waved that away by saying that the party was not totally freaked by the dragon, based on the amount of damage that Tory nailed it with first.

The party now rolled initiative, and Troy was still at the top. She did a “Twin Fang”, an action point followed by a twin strike. For those keeping track that’s 8 shots before any body else in the party did squat. Did 96 points of damage, which damn near bloodied the dragon in round one.

The rest of the combat was your more or less normal “party spreads out and attacks dragon” combat, with Ame being dropped to below 0 hit points, as normal. The dragon was technaclly killed by Ame’s “On Pain of Death” power, but as far as I’m concerned the dragon was killed by Tory’s first round.

The rest of the party was doing 20-30 points of damage a round (total), which means that she removed roughly 3 or 4 rounds of the dragon attacking, which means that I didn’t get a TPK, which I would have gotten if I had 3 more rounds, based on what I was doing to them.

Next week, into the Keep.

We added a new player character to the part. Every one say Hi to ‘Lock the Dragonborne Warlock. Today’s party was Unkhe the rogue, Saffy the wizard, Ame the Paladin, Tory the Ranger and ‘Lock.

The party more or less burned through the encounters 1-3, laying waste to large numbers of Kobolds of various types in short order. The Dart Trap in room 2 slowed them down a little, but not that much. In fact they were so fast there that I had the surviving kobold run into room 3 to get help. Readied actions against minions equals a pile of dead minions at the door.

Room 4, on the other hand, kicked their butt. We had to leave early (FLGS owner needed to leave no later than 5:00 so we were short an hour or so. The “end point” was when the party more or less jumped back out of the room and closed the door. Saffy wants to kick open the door and keep going, mainly because she has her daily spell (Flaming Sphere) active and doesn’t want to “waste” it. The fact that it totally screwed over the Dragon Shield Kobolds and the Wyrmpriest hasn’t seem to sunk in yet.

Fun bits, well, at least for me

1. Dart traps are fun.
2. Saffy gets the “Add insult to injury” award for using mage hand to attempt to drop a statuette of Tiamat on the kobolds head in room 2, after blasting them with Scorching Burst
3. When the guard drakes (from room 3, moved back to room 4) more or less broke through the front rank, the ended up attacking Tory in melee. Homie don’t play that. She takes some damage, backs up and unloads on the drakes. Well, in theory she does. What she does in reality is miss with both shots, use an action point to miss twice again, then use her elven accuracy to miss again. 5 shots, no hits, and all of them were real low rolls. Even she said “Epic Fail”
4. Ame, now standing next to 2 guard drakesdecides to pull back and heal people. She decides to “eat the opportunity attacks” from the Drakes. Bad idea. One critical hit for 19 points and a normal hit for 14 points later, we have a dying paladin on the ground.

So, the current Kill List

Unkhe

Kobold Slinger 1

Kobold Skirmisher 1

Saffy

Kobold Skirmisher 3

Kobold Slinger 1

Kobold Minions1

Ame

Kobold Skirmisher 1

Kobold Minion 1

‘Lock

Kobold Skirmisher 2

Guard Drake

Tory

Kobold Minion 2

Kobold Skirmisher 1 (one shotted. That’s rare in 4th ed for a non-minion)

More rituals and rule tweaks coming soon.

Summon Familiar

Level: 3
Category: Exploration
Time: 180 minutes
Duration: Instantaneous
Component Cost: 250 gp
Market Price: 750 gp

You summon a small animal that acts as an extension of your arcane power.

Familiar:
Smal Natural Animal
Initiative +2 Senses Perception +5; low-light vision
HP 38; Bloodied 19 (see hit point pool)
AC 15; Fortitude 15, Reflex 13, Will 11 (or masters defense)
Speed 6, climb 3
Bite (standard; at-will) +4 vs. AC; 1d6 + 2 damage
Alignment (as master)
Languages: None, Empathic with master, telepathic with master at level 11th
Skills Stealth +7
Str 14 (+2) Dex 15 (+2) Wis 10 (+0) Con 18 (+4) Int 8, (12 at master’s 11th level, 14 at 21st level) Cha 6 (-2)

Effects of having a Familiar:

1. You gain 10 hit points (or increase to 38, which ever is higher)
2. You and your familiar share your hit points as a pool. Damage to one effects the other, if both are in an area effect you do not take double damage. The familiar and master count as the same creature for powers that effect more than one creature.
3. “Self” spells and rituals effect caster and familiar
4. Touch and close burst spells can be cast from caster or familiar’s location. The master casts the spell, using his action.
5. You may “transfer”� a spell to your familiar as a standard action. A familiar may have only one spell “held”�. Transfering the spell counts as a use for encounter/daily use reasons. The familiar may cast the spell as it’s own action. The spell is lost to the familiar after a short rest if an
   encounter spell, and after a long rest if a daily spell.
6. Add levels as master levels per page 174 DMG.

This one is for DM’s Great index and encounter generator/design tools

This, on the other hand, is damn close to what Hero Forge was to 3.5 characters. Still need the books to use it, and the attack page could stand some work, but it’s slick piece of work regardless. I’ll be using it in the campaign, I can assure you.

I ran the International D&D game today. See here for what I thought of is as a player

We have a new character, Unkhe the Half Elf Rogue. Todays characters were Unkhe, Saffy, Skorm and Tory plus Evin, the generic cleric of Palor (being the only pre-gen character in today’s game). Skorm’s player wasn’t in, but had left his character sheet with Saffy’s player, so he was run by him (yes, Saffy is a female character, run by a male player. Not the oddest thing in the group, trust me.) Evin was run by Unkhe’s player.

I have between 5 and 7 players normally, but this week was short, hence the doubling up of characters.

My notes as a DM.

1. Surprise round, plus very high initiative by the Hobgoblins results in a dying rogue. Trying to sneak into an ambush area after having a 10 ton (or more) stone obelisk be magically dragged off the stairwell’s entranceway isn’t a really great idea. You get shot, and long bows hurt, and long bow critical hits hurt more.
2. Traps based on easy to light oil don’t work real well when you have a fire based wizard (Saffy) and a fire breathing half dragon (Skorm) in the party. I did rule that the burning fish oil gave superior cover to the any one behind the black smoke. This mainly helped the Hobgoblins
3. “My” DM was far to nice. The Animated statues are really a bitch! Their knock down attack caused a lot of issues.
4. The Evil Elf on the other hand, is more or less harmless if you stay more than 5 squares away from it, after it casts it’s big encounter level power. Given that the party had the Warlord’s spirit on it’s side at that point, it killed off the elf while the party fought the statues
5. The trap based on the cavern ceiling falling down was fairly easily defeated by Saffy making an Arcane roll and Unkhe making a Thievery roll, both easily passing the 25 needed. Means they didn’t have to make the 3 turn dash with the hostages to end the adventure.

And now… The Kill List

• Tory
  1. Hobgoblin 1
  2. Skeleton 2
  3. Antimated statue 1
• Unkhe
  1. Hobgoblin 1
  2. Antimated statue 1
• Saffy
  1. Skeleton 2

Saffy, Unkhe, Tory and Skrom made 2nd level. Ame wasn’t there, so didn’t get any points this game, and Evin, the generic cleric left in a huff when Saffy the Mage wouldn’t destroy the ritual book taken at the end.

Not my game, but I played in the World Wide D and D Day game.
General notes:

1. Crappy character designs, at least the Eladrin Wizard, which I ran.
2. Cool logic puzzle/Riddle at the start. I think my party would have had more issues had I not been there.
3. The Dragon in the monster bag is just to scare the players.
4. The living statues at the end are a bitch
5. The party really could have used a Warlord or a Paladin instead of one of the 2 fighters. The party is a Rouge, a Wizard, a Cleric and a pair of fighters. Not enough healing, at least IMAO. A Warlord or a Paladin would have added more healing, but not reduced the front line strength that much, in fact might have helped.

   A rant:

   
   

   I was told that this adventure was “designed for this party and another party would mess it up. That’s crap, or the whole “perfectly balanced XP system” that 4th Ed is all about is broken. Either a 1st level character is a equal to a 1st level character or it’s not. While you should have at least one of each type (Fighter, Mage, Cleric and Thief, I’m not doing the “leader/defender/striker/controller” thing that WotC wants to use), something is wrong if you substitute one of the “healing fighters” for a normal fighter and it breaks the adventure. The straight ahead fighters are supposed to have advantages over the Paladins/Warlords as to make them as useful as the other classes. If the FLGS owner was right, well, there is a problem. It’s also possible that he’s full of crap.

6. The look on every one’s face when I teleported, used mage hand and fired an offense spell, all in one turn was priceless. Even the DM was somewhat taken back, but that’s a movement action, a minor action and a standard action. I thought about using my action point and casting another spell, but I didn’t want to really push it…
7. I suspect the DM got just a little ticked off at me, because the Evil Elf in the last encounter seemed to be aiming at me a lot. The fact that she said something like “ah, the fruits of a magic missile attack” tends to add to that. Being knocked to under 0 hit points three times in one encounter is a clue also.
8. The DM also had not fully groked the full impact of “at will powers” showed also, when she asked “how may magic missiles do you have anyway?”. She looked a bit ill when I said “as many as the dwarf has ax swings”. The fact that I was rolling like crap didn’t enter into it.

I may run this adventure Sunday, not sure. FLGS owner wants me to, if we have enough players.