I knew that we'd be derailed from the start when I realized I'd be running with 8 players. However, unless my insight is totally off, they were all having a blast.
So, having not run the last couple of sessions, I ran the blindfolded walk to the encampment as a sort of prologue (minimum player input) since I didn't know how far the DM had got before with that. They were all blindfolded and thrown in the cage, made of wood and lashed with fibre rope. At this point I divided them into two logical "parties": the old characters that were being stuck with (3) and new characters (5).
They spent a bit rattling around, trying to sweet talk the guards, and assessing the strength of the cage. Then, Barcan started throwing a fit that "the Star Gods will be displeased that you are holding me here without my staff, and will visit their wrath upon your tiny forms!" Somewhere along the way, the character developed a touch of schizophrenia.
However, one of the new characters, a bard I think, jumped on this and started pleading with the guards to let them go lest the "Star Gods'" wrath be visited.
Guard: "But it's day, the stars aren't out, they can't hurt us!" Tiefling bard: "Yes, but they'll come out tonight, won't they?" Guard: o_0
The guard brought the Chieftain and his 4 honour guard, and they managed to bargan Barcan's staff back. However, that was it.
Afterwards they worked together to distract the guards so the two defenders could knock them out against the cage bars, grab their weapons, and cut the rope lock. They even managed to get the rough location of their gear out of one ("by the chief's tent, why do you ask?"). One of the guards went down loudly, however, and alerted the nearby halflings preparing for the feast: mostly young hunters guarding the village. At the exact same moment, Barcan decided to burn open the cage, naturally with everyone still in it.
As soon as Barcan gets out, he starts running straight into camp the way the guard pointed: past the feast fire and preparations, filled with halflings. He was yelling something about finding "the Cheese Tent" so he could offer its contents as a sacrifice to the Star Gods. A sorcerer and a defender followed, and the rest fled the other way into the forest. To coordinate the meet-up time better, I envisioned the camp as oval-shaped, with the chief's tent and the mapped site at the centre and their cage on the west end.
So Barcan and crew start fighting their way through young halflings ("Women and children guys, the hunters must be off somewhere else preparing for the feast.") Meanwhile, the rest circled around the outside.
This section was interesting, as I ran the first 3 for about 45 mins to an hour, while the other 5 watched. I was a little apprehensive, but they were perfectly happy to joke their way through it cutscene-style. As the Barcan and posse were getting close, I switched over to the other 5, who plodded their way through tents, trying to figure out where there stuff was. One of the rangers (we had 2) found the clogs in a tent and, since I described then initially as similar to snowshoes, tried to improv it into a hand-shield. He gave up on that idea pretty quickly once he realized he wanted to jump the wall into the compound.
I coordinated it so that Barcan and crew arrived as the others were getting to the compound. However, there was a Wilder and a Warrior there to meet them on the west side of the compound. So far, I'd been using the warrior stats but with only a basic melee attack and as minions for the younger "tribal defenders", with some Warriors thrown in for the chieftain's honour guard, so the Wilder was a nice big surprise that nearly clocked Barcan in one. It took them a couple of rounds to deal with those guys, while the other 5 stormed the compound.
A ranger and the dray fighter jumped the wall, but both in different ways: the ranger dropped down neatly, but the dray launched himself into the only enemy in sight, right outside the opening to the storage room (roofed area) with their stuff in it. After numerous athletics and acrobatics checks, he landed flat on top of the enemy, another Wilder, both prone. Amazing enough image for a laugh break and a MoG.
Anyway, the assassin came in the door and the ruined opening to shank the Wilder when it crawled out from underneath the dray, and the bard followed the ranger into the room... only to see another Wilder, dressed like a village shaman with a billowy black-feathered cloak going through their stuff!
He didn't last too long. The last shot was a critical from Phye 2.0, pinning him to the floor with her spear.
Barcan looked in the chief's tent before they hoofed it. Inside a drawer (the only tent with such a luxury), wrapped in a large leaf, was a piece of old white Canadian cheddar.
It was a great night, we spent a good 3 hours on it. I got a lot of positive feedback, and I'm hoping for a good turnout for Saturday's DS Game Day as well because of it. This had to be my absolute favourite session yet.
Ok we had 5 players this week and 2 of the players remade their characters.
So we now have the following: 1 Ardent Half elf, Templar Theme 1 Fighter Dwarf, Minstral Theme 1 Monk Mul, No theme 1 Sorcercer Human, Veiled Alliance(Barcan) 1 Battlemind Thri-kreen(Shrikki)
So on with the show How not to end on the main course.Show
I explain how everyone ended in the same pen. When we last left our party they had left the tomb and were captured by the headhunters.
Then they were knocked out and when they woke in a 30 ft high palisade there were some of their party members missing and there were some new faces. I also told them that they could smell cooking meat coming from the village. That lit a fire under them and they realized what their fate was now,but how to get out of the prison without any equipment. I mean they had nothing left, like armor or weapons.
They try to intimidate the guards ,but that fails so more guard show up to keep them in line.
They were given gruel and water and the Templar who isn't used to be a prisoner takes badly to it. The jerky strips were also thrown in the cell and the monk quickly horded them up not realized what they were most likely from. So the party didn't really interact with each other for they were for the most part strangers.
It is then that things happen in quick succession. Barcan took the lead as a distraction and used his fire based powers and set some of the surrounding trees on fire. The monk and fighter quickly go the back of the cage and try to try to break through the wall hitting the weak spots. The Tri-kreen and Ardent try to climb the wall to get out. Skrikki makes it up 20 ft and finds that the halflings had greased the wood and so he started to slide back down.
Barcan then turns around and starts to fire at the same spot the Monk was working at. He sets it on fire. The Ardent runs up to try to hit it with her Templar's Fist, she fails ,but the rest of the party saw that their new member was using Necrotic energy on the weaked wood. That should make the party a little suspicious for the next few sessions.
At this time Shrikki, jumps down from the wall Bull Rushes the weaken area and busts on through to the other side, almost trampling a dwarf in the process. The party makes a quick exit and regroups in the woods outside the village.
They now have to formulate a plan to get their equipment and survival days back. They attempt a steath check to go around the village to find the storage hut and as a group they succeed. So they see there are some guards around the hut and the dwarves and Thri-kreen start to do some wall jumping to get the high ground. The Ardent and Sorcercer take positions. They cause the guards to come to them and jump down from the high ground armed only with sticks from the forest. The fighter takes a spear to the leg from a failed stealth check and the fight is on. They are able to contain the halflings inside the hut so noone can make a break to sound the alarm. The Sorcercer keeps dropping his AoE inside the hut which is dealing good damage. The Tri-kreen takes point and pays for it ,by getting mind blasted 2 times.
The party is able to run in a pick up there weapons ,which helps in the damage department ,but with no armor the Thri-kreen and Fighter are just hp soaks. It doens't matter for the halfling guards can't hit even without armor.
The party mops up what is left and claims their equipment and some more survival days so now the party is up to 6 days worth, so that is 1 per person. They might have to start making some sun stroke rolls soon.
We had a great session at Uncle's Games near Seattle, WA. The DM did a good job playing Chief Olab and we all had a fun time. Journal link below has all the details:
My table went for the break out method of escape rather then trying to talk their way out of it. The bars were quickly pulled aside without the guard noticing. What followed could only have been described as a parade of elephants climbing out from between the bars, one stealth check after another was failed. The group quickly armed themselves with make shift weapons and went in after their gear having over heard some of the guards argueing about who would get to take first pick.
The combat did not go well for the party at all only phye survived the night by running from the encounter with a single hitpoint after she used the last of her healing powers on another party member. It was the closest my table has come to a tpk the whole season. So this wednesday should be interesting a couple of the players are discussing swaping characters.
OOH OOH ours was the best. we had a player created party of a halfling ardent, bow ranger, halfling barbarian, human warlock, mul fighter, and a dray warlord that had to leave. basically the two halflings started with all there gear and came in round two, we failed the skill checks so there were 7 halfings.
the best part came when the fighter went to inspect the bell thing and rolled a 1 causing him to fall into the bell. so basically we are being torn apart by wave after wave of halflings till the dm says that you could disarm the bell, so 5 wilders and 13 or so other halflings later we finally amde it out. probably thanks to my sorceror-king pact warlock being able to really dish out the hurt killing most of the baddies since i was the only one who didnt rely on gear to be effective, i can say this since our fighter slapping the halfings and our ranger looking for some nice rocks to through werent really helping. the last funny part was when a wilder chased my 9 health warlock around the building my warlock just barely being able to evade it around the corners while the party mopped up the rest of the monsters. but seriously we messed up this encounter XD
For my first time playing D&D Encounters, I had an absolute blast. I was given a choice of three pre-generated characters I could play, and really, none of them looked particularly enticing. Still, I’ve always been up for a challenge, and in the past, playing pre-gen characters that have just been handed to me, I’ve done quite well, so I felt confident trying something new. I picked the leader-class, Ardent character, a human named Phye; Phye was supposed to be a woman, but I made sure everyone at the table understood, then and there, that Phye had mysteriously undergone a gender change, and was decidedly male.
We found ourselves locked in a cage, surrounded by a bunch of Halflings who wanted to eat us. What followed was a skill challenge that proceeded on two different levels: one level being that of diplomacy, to talk the carnivores out of eating us, and the other level being that of unabashed brutality in just kicking down the door of our prison. Ready or not, cannibals, here we came!
Immediately, the Warlock decided he wanted to intimidate the Halflings into letting us go, and somehow this fell under the category of ‘diplomacy’. He had moderate success with his attempts at channeling raw arcane energy to encircle his form, in a way that harkened back to the old anime Dragon Ball, and calmly informed our captors that they had better let us go, or else! Well, my character was a healer, and rather by virtue of the trade, he was particularly good at getting random folks to like him; as such, I, too, joined the side of diplomacy. It was my goal to play the ‘good cop’ to the Warlock’s ‘bad cop’, and try to confuse the little people into wanting to release us. Meanwhile, the Fighter had begun the process of kicking the living crud out of the door of our cage, and every single other character decided that was the way to go. I quickly adapted my tactics to include such phrases as, “Look, he’s about to break down the door and kill you all. Why don’t you just let us go peacefully, so you don’t have to die?”
Now, I know I probably shouldn’t have, but the DM was keeping tally of the successes and failures of the two different skill challenges in full view of me, and so, I couldn’t help but notice. Despite the fact that it was only the Warlock and myself, the side of diplomacy was only one success away from completion when the humanoid praying mantis finally kicked down the door. Apparently, that meant we beat the skill challenge and were free to go. What happened to the carnivorous midgets the Warlock and I had been talking to all this time? As it was explained to me, they had lost interest in discussing our release and wandered off by the time the giant bug kicked down the door. I was not appeased with this answer, but at the prodding of my fellow players, I let the matter drop. We had escaped, and I suppose there was no need to press the matter further.
What followed was a systematic route, of the remaining Halflings, by our party. This battle went so well, that I, as the leader, only used my healing abilities once, and even so, it was only as a courtesy, and wasn’t actually needed. We all started off without our equipment, and on the wrong side of two walls. Sure, a few party members tried to climb the walls and run along them; but, the Fighter, Warlock, and I capitalized on the fact that starting a battle next to my character filled everyone with such joy that we were all invigorated with a significant boost of speed, and we just ran around everything to blockade our foes in the room in which they had foolishly placed themselves.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that this battle lasted less than thirty seconds of game time. Sure, one Halfling managed to jump over our blockade, but the Warlock just blasted him with arcane power until he was nothing more than ashes. This prevented the alarm bell from being rung, and the Fighter and I managed to rip through the remaining enemies before most of the rest of the party even got to the room. Yes, the praying mantis thing got a few good, solid hits in, and I would be remiss in neglecting to mention such; however, she really only got her hits in the second round and a half. The rest of the time, it was just the Fighter marking and hurting things, the Warlock firing attacks over our heads, and me, slashing as I could, and buffing the Fighter’s attacks.
I feel awful that the other two players didn’t even get into the room to help. To the DM’s credit, he did caution them against climbing walls, when the Ardent gave them bonuses to speed that could get them there in half the time. Truly, I wish I could think of a way to compliment them, but the battle ended in the fourth round, and, somehow, those two were still on the walls when I swung the final killing blow.
Ultimately, the encounter was played very well. I feel that our DM was a little inexperienced, but he didn’t do too badly. The synergy between the Fighter, the Warlock, and my Ardent was amazing, and I look forward to playing with these people in the future!
