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7 months ago ::
Nov 08, 2012 - 6:16AM
#11
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Date Joined:
Aug 24, 2005
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We did session 1 last night. My crew adapted to the new structure very well. I think the lack of short rests was a little off-putting, but after seeing how the session worked, they rolled with it. The lack of renown points is something I'm not too happy about, becuase we usually gave whoever got the most at the end of the season a reward.
They went to town, introduced themselves, and chatted up the townsfolk a little. They quickly learned the basics of the situation with the ghost and started searching for more details. A failed streetwise check led one person to the dwarf blacksmith, where they learned a rumor about orcs threatening the dwarves. I used the failure to plant a seed of information that was unrelated to the information they actually wanted. Another person attempted a nature check to see if their character knew any major points in the forest that would be likely destinations. A crit success led him to recall that he knew a druid in the area, and she would likely know everything about the forest. I asked the character to describe how he knew the druid, and he said his character "doesn't kiss and tell", which I thought was a great response, and decided to use later. They made contact with the druid, and learned about the ruins. The character asked the druid if she would like to accompany the party to the ruins. I asked for a charisma check. Critical failure. Another great failure that I would use to expand on their prior relationship. She responded with "I know you are trying to help the area, so I've given you what information I have. But given how things ended with us last time, I'd rather you never speak to me again."
With that, the party headed to the ruins. They were about to run into the stirge, when I said "You remember the critical failure you hada few minutes ago? It's not done failing yet... You hear a voice coming from the forest. It was the druid saying 'I've waited a long time for this. Say hello to my little friend.'" And thats when the stirge came down and attacked the character who had spurned the druid. Obviously, it wasn't a major threat. Just a good way for a spurned lover to have a small bit of revenge. By the time the battle was done, she was gone, back into the forest. It was a great way to turn a random encounter into something with a little more meaning. I was very fortunate with how everyting lined up.
At the ruins, my party scared off the other group with a few good intimidation rolls and good role playing. Top it off with a perfectly timed appearance of the ghost, and the other party fled without much trouble. The exploration of the dungeon went fairly well. They found the statue of Helm, got the blessing, and the hiddent loot. They very quickly dealt with the spear traps by throwing heavy objects onto to tiles to determine which ones were trapped and which ones were not. The reflecting pool was almost completely ignored, after one character interacted with it. This dissapointed me greately. The hellfire was easy to overcome, once they made a history check to remember what happened to this place. A few prayers from the cleric in Helm's name put them out.
When it came to the imp, they actually had more trouble with the first riddle than the second. I was very impressed by their ability to figure out the name and banish the imp. I added a little flourish that as the final brazier was extinquished, the phantom appeared in the fading smoke, smiled, and bowed to them, thanking them for releasing him.
After they found Helm's Tears, and left, the darkening happened, and that's where we ended the session.
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