Tonight went pretty well all in all.
Everyone showed up with a little bit of last week on their minds. I
think that’s good. We had a lot to do tonight and tight schedule
to keep. A couple of my players have to work some weekends, so the
night can't go too late. Typically we start around 7:30 (lol 8:00)
and we strive to finish at 12:00-12:30. Its a tight schedule and
with kids and breaks we actually get a lot accomplished every night
we get together. Since last week focused so much on roleplaying I
wanted tonight to be much more problem solving and combat focused.
Its less stressful than moral decisions and when you succeed you can
walk away from the night feeling pretty good.
Episdode 11.
The party started off in the woods near
Granites hidden fortress. They had ambushed him and now found
themselves in the predicament where they had to figure out how to get
from their small encampment into the temple. I built a few skill
checks into this, history, engineering, geogrpahy would all help to
point the party towards knowing that the cliff at the back of the
mountain range looked strange and out of place somehow.
The party started the night a little
on edge, they didn't want to screw anything up. They moved very
carefully, at night, towards the back of the woods, crossed a stream,
and got up to the cliff. A lot of time was spent making sure that
they crossed that stream safely. I'm glad they did that, shows they
want to stay safe but are willing to take risks when necessary.
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| Topographical map of the valley. Yellow is the low ground red is the high ground |
I did another word
puzzle here. After searching they found a stone puzzle box they
could plug into the wall tat said “more valuable than gold”, the
letters I had included one to make STONE, FAMILY, MITHRAL, TRUST,
HONOR. The answer was trust. They had 4 chances and using the right
skills (perception, knowledge (history, local, dungeoneering) they
could eliminate some letters. It took 3 tries and around 15 minutes
but they got in.
Once they snuck in
they found some slaves, and Durns mother who told them to travel
upstairs to find her son. After wards they very quickly got into a
fight with some dueregar and some mountain dwarves. I'm torn on what
maps to include here, this was a pretty straightforward fight (CR7)
but had a giant pit in the middle that led down to the underdark.
The only thing I really wanted out
of this fight was for someone to get knocked into the pit and killed
as a result. As it turns out Urz bullrushed a Dueregar over and
dropped him. I was very happy to see that. One of the Dueregar they
were fighting did manage to slip out the back and run back towards
the underdark.... who knows how that will turn out.
The
party found a few bars of Mithril here, I don't give my parties a lot
of money over time, so this Mitrhil may be one of the few major
sources of income they get for a while. Once they had explored the
lower level they climbed over 9 stories to reach the next level where
they found... nothing of note.
I do this sometimes. There was
nothing to find there, but one of my players today asked me what they
missed, and I said- “I dunno, I guess not much.” Its good to
have areas where you don't anything from time to time. It makes it
so finding something that much better.
 |
| The two bottom pillars shot acid arrows at anyone standing in green |
When it was over
they had killed everyone except for 1 dueregar who was willing to
trade information for his safety. He explained that the dueregar
were trading mithril for slaves to give them cheap access to labor
and to give the Stoutfellows the Mithril they needed to have the best
equipped Clan in the
dwarven hierarchy.
When that was over
Typhus- the Judge Dredd of the country of Proveria- determined that
this Dueregar was guilty of his crimes and threw him into the red hot
coals of the forge. Typhus is an inquisitor and LN, it also fit his
character. He considers himself to be judge, jury, and executioner
as such he found the dueregar guilty of slavery and meted out his
punishment.
The party at this
point was pretty hurt. Their APL is 6.4, which I rounded up to 7.
Well given that the 7 and 8 enounter were tough and a lot of
resources were expended on those fights...and up next was the big
daddy of the fights. A CR 10 fight to save their lost comrade Durn.
Upstairs they found
a number of mountain dwarves and dueregar waiting for them. Over the
next 12 rounds the party expended the majority of their resources.
Typhus was dropped to -8 at one point, Lina spent a good portion of
the fight running from a dueregar, Urz was laying waste to the dirty
dwarves with cleaving power attacks, Sam was creating pits under
anyone foolish enough to stand, and Damone was buffing everyone into
the extreme. When all was said and done, all the parties spells were
spent, and there were no remaining rounds of abilities left.
I like fights were people get the
chance to stick and move. One of my gripes about the OGL system of
combat is that it tends to be more beneficial for people to
standstill and swing than it is for people to move around the map. I
like dynamic fights and this was one. I don't pull punches in my
games, and there was a legitimate chance for a TPK here, but when the
party is willing to throw themselves at the fight with all they have
then I am happy with the result.
Now the Party has
Durn, they are at the top of a fortress filled with angry dwarves and
near a town where they are wanted for murder and potentially killing
the Mayor. As the night drew to a close the party found themselves
barricaded behind a stout door to rest as they plotted out their next
move. It was a night filled with combat. The nice thing was that at
the end of the night they felt like they succeeded. They broke into
a stout dwarven fortress, snuck up several levels, put down the
resistance, and saved their friend.
They are
sequestered away in the top level of this fortress behind a thick
iron banded wooden door and are resting up to face whatever foes are
still in and around the keep.
Until next time!
-Ubercroz
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