Okay, sorry for the delay, but after the forum ate my last post, I just lost all motivation to rewrite it until now. I like sharing these campaign notes, but it takes me about half an hour, on average, to write everything up, and when the post gets lost, it takes me a while before I'm in the mood to sit down like that again. Well, at any rate, here it is:
Game Four
Picking up from where Game 3 ended, the 'Watch found themselves a few miles outside of Strasa, in the twilight hours before sunrise. They had just defeated a Dire Wolf and its pack, who had been terrorizing the area around the city for some time, and were on their way toward the Fey Gates (a mysterious location where the magical barriers between worlds is thin) to meet up with Mal (Phaedra's treacherous ex-lover). Because we had to skip our session the week before, I decided to make it up to my players with a couple of bonuses: first, my wife and I brought a few pizzas; second, I decided to just give them their Bounty Board reward for killing the Dire Wolf (Magic Item, but I can't recall exactly what it was right now) without having to go back to town first, so they could use it while they're in the Feywild; finally, I refreshed all of their powers, as if they'd had an extended rest, so that we could potentially have a bit more action in this session than we would have.
It was my fault we couldn't get together last time, so I wanted to make it up to everyone. I think it went over pretty well.
So, the group arrived at the Fey Gates ahead of Mal, which was the plan. They scouted out the area, checked for traps, and prepared themselves, both mentally and physically, for an adventure in the Feywild. I explained that the Elvish tribes they might encounter should be considered hostile. They don't look kindly upon round-ears in their territories, and they certainly don't want anyone encroaching upon their sacred Evergroves. The penalty for trespassing, I explained, was pretty simple; one bone broken for every twig snapped underfoot. (shamelessly lifted from the Llanowar Elves flavour text in Mtg)
When Mal finally showed up, everyone took notice that he looked a little under the weather. Everyone was soaked by the cold, early morning rain, but Mal looked clammy and possibly sick. Virgil's player jokingly asked if Mal had been "fished" (which is their term for when someone falls under the influence of the Abiding One) ... which ended up being totally accurate, but it wouldn't come up until much later that night. Essentially, Mal's "client" -the one who first contacted him, and contracted him to find and construct an Arboreal Mirror- was either the Abiding One itself, or one of its disgusting agents. After the last session, when Mal met with Phaedra in the Crooked Coin and two agreed to travel into the Feywild together, the thief reported the news to his client. Unfortunately, the meeting didn't go exactly as he'd planned, and the Abiding One devoured Mal. The thing that's meeting with the Raven Watch is actually one of the Abiding One's vile servants - a disgusting, indescribable creature from the Far Realm that's using its powers of illusion to merely look like Mal.
But again, they won't find that out for some time. They are immediately suspicious, however, especially after Victoria attempts to read Mal's mind and comes up with a total blank. Virgil decides that, for the duration of the adventure, he's not letting Mal get further than a sword blade's length away from him at any time. If, at any time, Mal starts acting even more "fishy", he'll be there to lock him down and keep the rest of the 'Watch safe.
The Feywild is an arboreal reflection of the world the 'Watch comes from, so they're able to roughly recognize certain landmarks that they're familiar with. Eventually, they make their way to a clearing that leads to one of the sacred Evergroves, where they'll need to gather up some water to make the face of their mirror. Here, they are confronted by a group of elvish warriors, tasked with guarding the grove. Phaedra attempts the diplomacy approach, but they simply will not allow the 'Watch to pass. When the elves notice Mal, they call him an abomination, and swear to die before they'll allow it into their sacred waters (further indicating that something about Mal is "fishy"). At this point, it's pretty much roll for initiative time.
I tried to do some interesting things with the battlefield this time around: pretty much the entire area is filled with Grab Grass (magical grass that requires a Strength check to stand up if you get knocked Prone in it), and I included enemies that could knock Prone, along with others that deal extra damage when they have Combat Advantage; I also split the map in the center with a small pool of water, which acted like Difficult Terrain; finally, jutting out from the water is a Life Stone (or whatever it's called in the DMG) that radiates healing energy, and grants 5 hit points to anyone who starts their turn adjacent to it. The stone also worked to block Line of Sight across the water, to a certain degree.
The group was up against an Eladrin Arcane Archer, two Elvish Scouts, and a Grey Wolf. The Arcane Archer has the ability to knock Prone all targets in a Burst, so he opened with that, and used it every time it recharged (I used this opening attack to knock Mal Prone, by the way, and for the sake of simplicity, just had him fail his strength check to stand up every turn, so I didn't have to deal with him). He stayed on his side of the pool, along with the Grey Wolf, which worked to intercept anybody who made it across the water to deal with its master. The Wolf can knock Prone whenever it's got Combat Advantage, and it deals extra damage to Prone targets.
The Elvish Scouts pushed across the water toward the rest of the party. They get multiple attacks, deal additional bonus damage if both attacks hit, and do extra damage if they've got Combat Advantage, so they're pretty deadly. Virgil attempted to cut them off in the water and lock them down, but since Elves ignore Difficult Terrain when they Shift, he had a pretty difficult time. In fact, they used that ability to Flank n' Spank him as soon as he moved close, and actually Dropped him in one round. Fortunately, Victoria is such a powerfully dedicated healer that she was able to basically give him a full heal when it came around to her turn.
The fight was pretty rough, but the 'Watch pulled through in the end, and made their way into the sacred Evergrove to finally collect the water they needed fo finish constructing the Arboreal Mirror. At this point, "Mal" decided to reveal his true form to the party. Essentially, as he waded out into the water, his body began to unravel; his face peeled apart, like spider legs unfolding from a curled-up position, and his body writhed apart into a mass of flailing tentacles lined with wicked, sucking mouths. As its body opened up, a shining beacon of frost emerged from within, and radiated an unnatural cold throughout the grove. At this point, it was pretty much roll for initiative.
At first, I'd actually wanted to use a low-level White Dragon for the encounter, and just describe it as this creature, but then I thought that might be too difficult. So I ended up taking a Cockatrice, and gave it that Cold Template from the DMG, which made it Elite. I figured that'd be a decent enough challenge for a group that had just gone through a pretty difficult encounter just moments before. I changed the Cockatrice's Immunity to Petrification to a straight Cold Resistance, and the rest was pretty much just the way I described it. Its Petrifying attack doesn't turn people to stone, for example; instead, it turns them into ice. Same mechanical concept, just a different flavour. This thing also had the Cold Template's Body of Ice, which Slowed anyone who hit it with a melee attack. All in all, I was pretty happy with my design. Unfortunately, this thing was a complete push-over -- no matter how cool you make something on paper in 4e, if it's just one creature against a group of 4 adventurers, they're just going to tear it apart.
So, lesson learned. Next time I plan a big "solo" encounter, there will at least be a handful of minions to deal with, as well.
Session 5 will be this weekend, and we'll pick up immediately where we've left off.
I was pretty well surprised when I signed in for the first time in over a month to find that the Raining City has been alive and active in my absence! Milkducks, your campaign sounds incredible at this point, and reading your session notes has really cemented the idea of Strasa being a haunting kind of place, home to nightmares real and imagined. Well done, sir.
I'm actually looking forward to D&D Next. I think that every edition had some really awesome qualities, and every edition has truly awful design flaws. I don't expect Next to be any different, but if WotC is actively trying to incorporate the good bits into one unified whole, then I do expect it to be worth playing.
I just had another idea for this city, inspired by New York City history (and an episode of Doctor Who). What if there use to be a large park in the original settlement. Over the year, as the water started to rise, the park became a shanty town of house boats and covered dinghies for the poor, something akin to a nautical Hoovertown. Thoughts?
I'm actually looking forward to D&D Next. I think that every edition had some really awesome qualities, and every edition has truly awful design flaws. I don't expect Next to be any different, but if WotC is actively trying to incorporate the good bits into one unified whole, then I do expect it to be worth playing.
That's a great idea, Curious. That's sort of the way I've described everything on the "wrong" side of Cecil's wall, to be honest.
I'm gearing up to run our 5th Game in a few days, and I wanted to run a few ideas past the community to see what you think. Originally, I had wanted to pick up directly where we'd left off in Game 4; in the Sacred Evergrove of the Feywild, where the PCs would likely have to suffer the consequences of their actions when confronted by a number of elves (most likely culminating in some harsh interation with Phaedra's parents, who are Eladrin nobles). I had written out a fair amount of story in that direction, actually, but I wasn't really feeling it. In the end, I just felt like I wanted to get the players back to Strasa, because it's really the center of the whole story -- the hub where everything important takes place. So I decided to skip all that stuff, and allow the players to begin again in Strasa, with a time period of about 2 weeks in between the last session and the one coming up. I've already run it by the group, and that's totally cool with them.
I intend to keep the story pretty open at this point. Instead of leading the players around by their noses, as I've been known to do in the past, I really want them to make their own decisions. I've included a number of possible events around the city, of course, and there's one in particular that they're likely to get involved in, so I wanted to run it by you guys to see what you think:
Essentially, I've been wanting my combats to feel more thrilling and dangerous. I also want there to be more on the line than just the character's lives in some cases. Finally, I also wanted to design an encounter where enemies are capable of coming at the party from all sides, so Virgil can't force everyone in to a choke-point, and lock them down so they can't attack the rest of the party. That's great sometimes, and I'm glad he's utilizing my encounter areas to maximum defensive effect, but I want to design an encounter where he's got a lot of difficulty locking down targets, so the whole group has to work together.
The idea I've got so far is that there's going to be a faire or parade in town, celebrating some historical event or another. The parade will even feature some floats, lumbering down the sodden streets and displaying some interesting magical effects. One of the floats will be of a really impressive Red Dragon, and it will have been magically infused so it can let off bursts of flames. Essentially, something's going to go wrong, and the Red Dragon's going to explode. I want it to be a particularly nasty explosion, like you see in movies: glass shatters out of windows, people nearby get set aflame or knocked back into the canals by the shockwave, everyone nearby is momentarily deafened, etc. The PCs will also catch a glimpse of several magical fire spirits (which had been bound into the float to power its flaming breath) bursting out of the dragon and onto the streets. They then leap into the side of a building and set it aflame.
I'm assuming the PCs will dart in after these things. I'll even sweeten the pot for them, by saying that the building that's been set aflame is full of children -- maybe it's an orphanage or a school or something. Anyway, point being that they'll almost certainly rush in to help.
The monsters I'm using for the encounter are modified Dust Devils from the MM2. Essentially, I've changed them around so they've got the Fire type, and added the Fire Keyword onto most of their attacks. I also gave them the Fire Shield Aura from the Legion of Avernus Theme in the DMG2. Their primary attack slides its target, so they'll likely use it to slide people into the Auras of its allies. It's also a handy tool for getting away from Virgil. They've got a rechargable Move action that lets them Shift around the battlefield and knock targets prone, which is another great way to get away from the Defender. Finally, they've got an Enconter Burst 3 ability that does great damage and Blinds, so they can also use that if they get cornered. Basically, they're really, really hard for a fighter to pin down.
I'm thinking of building the encounter around 4 of these monsters, which is a 600 XP total; a bit high for a group of 4 level 2 characters, but it's potentially the only encounter they'll face during that day in game, so I figured I should make it tough. Adding to the battle's complexity, I'd like to have a few children NPCs that are trying to hide and avoid the monsters as best they can. I'm not sure how best to implement them, however, and I'd appreciate any advice you guys might have.
Any advice on the encounter at all would be great. I want it to be something they have fun with, even if it's hard. Also, if anyone has any ideas about other potential encounters around the city (Bounty Board stuff or otherwise) just let me know. You guys are full of great ideas, and I'm open to anything.
Sounds like an awesome encounter, but I wonder where is the story connection? You aren't trying to lead them by their noses, but having random events is basically the same thing, just without as much direction. This encounter should either be a finale of a story segment or the start of a story segment, either trying to stop the Dragon from exploding or investigating why it exploded. I personally like Zessith as the culprit in this one, possibly using it as a distraction for some other nefarious goal.
I think you should try to make the encounter two parts. Part one is rescuing the children, part two is fighting the fire. In the first part the Fire devils are mainly moving about attacking flammable objects, and will only fight the party if they are attacked, often times bursting in response. The party should become quickly aware (or maybe recieve a DM hint) that if they attack the Fire devils and the devils respond by bursting into flames, the children are all at risk. The party might be able to stand the heat, but the children aren't. The plan then becomes getting the devils away from the children, since the fire aura+generally lighting everything on fire will probably kill the children unless they are rescued. After all the arbitrary number of children are rescued, the party realizes that the fire devils are working their way toward the biggest fuel stockpile in the building, the large support beams that hold the multi story building up. The party now has to confront the devils head on, but as long as the devils stay around the burning columns, they heal 5 every round. The party has to douse the flames by any means necessary in order to stop the regen and save the building from collapsing.
Played our 5th Session last night, and I think it went over really well. Honestly, we didn't get a lot accomplished, because we started talking off-topic and we didn't steer it back toward the game for quite a while. Which is fine, really. As long as everyone's having fun, that's all I'm concerned with. We didn't get through all of the content I had written up, but all that means is that I have less to write up before the next session, lol. At any rate, I'll post my game notes for the 5th session sometime soon.
Hey guys, our 6th session is tonight. I know I haven't posted a summary of our 5th session yet, but that's because it basically got cut in half. The second half of that session is essentially what we'll be doing tonight. It felt a little awkward trying to post the events of the 5th session, because honestly, it didn't amount to much of anything. Tonight's session brings it all around, though, and introduces some pretty serious issues that the PCs will have to deal with. I will post a summary of both sessions tomorrow -- scout's honour.
Hey guys, our 6th session is tonight. I know I haven't posted a summary of our 5th session yet, but that's because it basically got cut in half. The second half of that session is essentially what we'll be doing tonight. It felt a little awkward trying to post the events of the 5th session, because honestly, it didn't amount to much of anything. Tonight's session brings it all around, though, and introduces some pretty serious issues that the PCs will have to deal with. I will post a summary of both sessions tomorrow -- scout's honour.
I look forward to your writeups. This is quite a setting, and I like what you're doing with it.
The events of the fifth game (and to a lesser extent, the sixth) center around an annual festival I created called Storm's Harvest. The name doesn't refer to any kind of specific agricultural crop, but rather, to the people of the city themselves. The kinds of challenges that face Strasa are unlike any that other cities face, and it takes a certain, special kind of people to live and thrive there. The citizens of Strasa need to be enterprising, hardy (both physically and mentally), and above all else, innovative. Storm's Harvest is a celebration of the people of Strasa, because they're the driving force that's turned it from a sunken, mud-filled wetland into a sprawling capital of mercantile strength and industry. I'd say that it's a mix of the American festivals of Thanksgiving (with its emphasis on gathering together as a community/family and giving thanks to those around you) and Veteran's Day (when you celebrate the importance of people, it's only natural that an emphasis is placed on those who've given their lives in defense of everyone else).
On the eve of Storm's Harvest, a great masquerade is typically held, and there's dancing, feasting and drinking in the streets into the long hours of the night. On the day of the festival itself, a grand parade is held through the city streets and canals. People crowd the narrow cobblestone streets to be close to the action, while thousands of others watch from their windows and balconies. This year, the Council wants to present special honours upon the Raven Watch, for all the help they've given the city. The members of the 'Watch happily accepted, and it was decided that an award ceremony would be held during the parade.
But let's wind it back a bit, first: Session 5 actually starts the day before the award ceremony and parade, on the eve of Storm's Harvest.
Over the last few sessions, Virgil has indicated that he'd like to hire on some additional manpower to help take care of the Roost. Essentially, he'd like some people that will cook meals, tidy up the rooms, maintain the equipment, manage communications (a raven master, essentially), etc. These are all things the members of the 'Watch could do themselves, of course, but Virgil explained that he's got plenty of gold, and he'd like to see that money get put back into the community. In 3rd edition, you could hire on folks for mere silver pieces per week, and if that model still holds true, the 'Watch could employ a sizeable number of people for almost nothing. Virgil wants to give these folks a good wage, and build up the organization's reputation throughout the city (as if it could be any better, but still).
He also wanted to hire on a kind of personal assistant that would travel with the group on adventures. This guy would essentially be in charge of a number of "little things": say the group goes into a dungeon and leaves their horses or campsite set up just outside; this guy's job would be to whistle as loud as he could if anything happened to the camp while they're gone. He'll get paid more than everyone else, of course: Hazard pay, and all that.
Once he and I had everything squared away in that regard, we got on with the rest of the session.
The group decided that they wanted to spend the evening at the Brazen Foal, amongst the other "local heroes"; it's a tavern for adventurers, of course, so Storm's Harvest is a really busy and exciting time for them. They spent the next few hours exchanging old stories with the regulars, participating in some bawdy drinking songs, and just generally having a good time. When it got late, and time to leave (they've got an award ceremony in the morning, after all!), they headed back toward the Roost. As they stumbled through the crowded city streets, surrounded on all sides by masquerading Strassans and laughter, they thought they could pick out several unusual figures moving through the crowd up ahead. Everyone's dressed up in costumes, but these guys looked ... different, somehow, and the group decided to investigate.
As they got closer, Victoria was able to pick out that these were actually Lizardmen in disguise. She determined that they must be using the masquerade as cover to infiltrate the city. After she informed the group, they did their best to sneak up through the crowd without catching the Lizardmen's attention. Phaedra was able to creep up within striking distance without being noticed, and she opened up with a brutal surprise attack while she had the opportunity.
Roll for initiative!
Phaedra scored a nasty sneak attack on the first lizardman during the surprise round, and since she rolled highest for initiative, she was able to score another, thanks to her First Strike class feature. This lizardman ate two sneak attacks in the span of about 6 seconds, and it was essentially dead before it even knew what happened. At this point, the crowd started to part away from the action, and the rest of the players joined the fray.
This encounter started off really well for the 'Watch, but things slowed down after the first few big hits. There were only four lizardmen, and the Poisonscale Magi did a great job of spreading around the ongoing damage, and keeping themselves just outside of reach. At one point, Phaedra dropped below 0 and had to start making Saving Throws. Combat had been rough up until that point, and Victoria had almost used up all of her healing spells, so Virgil (who had been all kinds of Slowed, Immobilized, and pushed away during the fight), stopped to give her aid himself. He's trained in Healing, actually, so that was a really good move on his part. Virgil's player, in my opinion, is really learning what it means to be a "group leader"; he's the defender, so it's his job to keep everyone else safe. Sometimes that means physically creating a bottleneck in the environment and soaking up punishment, and other times it means stepping away from combat to administer aid. All in all, I'm really impressed with Virgil.
After the fight had ended, the group did a little investigation, and noticed that some of the lizardmen had what appeared to be red paint splatted across their heavy robes. Some of them had it on their hands, as well. The players did some knowledge checks, and while some of them were aware that a lot of red paint gets used in the festival (for masks, parade floats, banners, etc), they decided not to investigate the matter any further.
The truth is that these lizardmen were in Strasa for a specific purpose: Zessith is planning a daring full-scale invasion of Strasa, and these spies had infiltrated the city to sabotage one of the parade floats with a black powder explosive. There are other spies within the city, of course, sabotaging other areas, so even if the group had followed up on the red paint lead, they're ultimately powerless to stop Zessith's attack. But more on that in a minute.
The next morning, the members of the Raven Watch washed up, got dressed in their finest armours, and made their way toward the central festival area, which lies in the courtyard of the Temple of the Everlasting Storm, Kord's primary temple in Strasa. At the height of the celebration, the 'Watch was called up onto the dais and presented with a magical staff that had been created for them by the Council (a Scalebane Staff, capable of doing incredible damage to reptile creatures, like Lizardmen). The 'Watch graciously accepted the weapon, along with a set of medals, while parade floats passed by through the streets and canals: one was in the likeness of a huge blackbird, crafted using real raven feathers; another was essentially a series of boats filled with the kinds of bright and colourful flowers that only grow in the lands of the East; but another float was the grandest sight of all -- crafted to resemble a great red dragon, it lumbered on thick wooden wheels down the rain-slick cobblestone streets. Crowds of people had to step back to make way for its massive bulk. The beast was powered by some kind of elemental magic, and every minute or so, it would raise its massive head and let loose an impressive jet of flames.
As they stood upon the dais, someone noticed a large red handprint on the base of the float. They immediately sprung into action, knowing that something bad was about to happen, but it was too late: an explosion tore through the streets and sent people flying into the canals like rag-dolls. Those closest to the blast would have been killed immediately, but those further out were set aflame, or shredded with glass fragments and shrapnel. The fiery shockwave shattered windows in every direction, and knocked the members of the 'Watch prone. The explosion momentarily deafened everyone, and it also released the elemental spirits that had been trapped within the dragon:
Three fiery spirits shot up into the air like rockets before landing on the streets below. They immediately lept into a nearby building, which went up in magical flames. The 'Watch remembered that, just moments before, they had seen a few children standing on the balcony of that building, and determined that it was possible they were trapped inside. They had to rescue them; they had to get there in time; a lot of people had just been killed, but the Raven Watch wasn't about to let those kids burn to death. They found their feet, drew their weapons, and rushed through the bloody streets toward the old building.
And that's where session 5 ended.
This has been a long post, so I'll come back with the 6th session review a bit later in the day.
Okay, I wrote a lot yesterday, and I had to put off the second-half. Here it is today, anyway:
Sixth Session
It's probably worth pointing out at that I recently realized I've messed up as a DM: I haven't been awarding the correct amount of experience to the group. During their adventures in Strasa, the 'Watch has only raised from level 1 to level 2 (they're just a hair away from level 3, however). I was wondering to myself why it was taking so long to level, and then I realized I wasn't awarding experience for Minor and Major Quest completion. So I went back over my campaign notes, and after I'd tallied up all of the group's exploits, I figured I owed them around 4,000 experience; which is no small amount.
I spoke to the group about it, and told them I wanted to get it awarded to them at the end of the session. Now, because they were so close to level 3, and because the events of the sixth session were worth a heap of experience points as well, the 'Watch essentially skipped level 3 all together. That's not ideal, since the DMG states that I'm supposed to hook the players up with a certain amount of treasure (in the form of gold and magic items) each level. I didn't want to deny them those rewards, so I kind of shuffled my campaign narrative around a bit. Anyway, here's what happened:
The game began with the group kicking in the door of a burning building. Inside, several children were trapped by walls of flame, and several small fire elementals were busy setting the place ablaze. I set the encounter up so that there were three "fiery origin squares"; essentially, each of these squares created a Burst 1 zone of fire, and at the end of each round, the size of that zone increased by 1. So every round, the fires will get bigger, and harder to avoid. In addition, if any of the origin squares are hit with damage from a Fire attack, the size of the zone increases by 1 immediately. Since the fire elementals each had a fiery Burst 3 encounter power, this added some randomness and urgency to the fire zones. To help counter it, I decided that any Cold damage that the origin squares suffered would immediately reduce the size of the fiery zone by 1; in this way, the players (Akkarin, especially) would have some control over the battlefield effects.
Finally, I required that each player had to make an Endurance check at the end of each round, to stave off the effects of smoke inhalation. Failure on the check resulted in the loss of a Healing Surge. Nothing major, but obviously, the longer you stay inside the building, the more dangerous it becomes.
I made up a few special rules involving the three children trapped inside the building. It's tempting to just make them "minions", but since there's so much AoE damage being thrown out, that would just be cruel. I decided that instead of giving them Hit Points, I'd simply give each child a small number of Healing Surges. They have to make Endurance checks at the end of each round, too, so those Surges will slowly deplete over the course of the battle. In addition, if any of the children take damage from the monsters or the zones, they immediately lose a Healing Surge. The children can be healed, however, just like players, and any healing they receive grants them an additional Surge (even if the ability requires them to "spend a Healing Surge" -- this is a special case, after all).
I wanted the players to care about what happens to the children, so I made each one worth a small amount of bonus experience (the equivalent of a Minor Quest reward). Furthermore, I told them I'd award a "No One Left Behind" bonus, if they're able to rescue all 3 children (the equivalent of a Major Quest reward).
The battle itself was a lot of fun. There was just the right amount of difficult or hindering terrain (in the form of overturned bookcases, dining tables, etc), status effects (ongoing damage, blind, etc), and danger zones (from the fire) that it was challenging, without being frustrating. And that's a hard balance to strike sometimes, so I'm pretty proud of that. Akkarin did a great job of handling the Fire Zones, which is something I anticipated. He's very much a "thinking" player; watching him play is fun because he approaches every turn very carefully, as he believes there's a "correct" move or course of actions that he needs to figure out. I designed this encounter with him in mind, because I knew he'd have fun suppressing the fire zones at key moments so that children could pass through a chokepoint, or so that party members on the edge don't fry when the zone expands at the end of a turn. At one point, he burned an Action Point just to drop a Chilling Cloud on one of the zones (we determined that since he's dropping a zone of his own, the fire not only gets suppressed by one square, but it doesn't automatically increase at the end of the turn, either -- I figure that's fair, especially since he's burning Action Points to keep the battlefield under control).
I rolled really badly, but I did manage to crit Virgil with one of the elementals' encounter abilities at one point, and brought him down about 30 hit points. I'm not an "adversarial" kind of DM, but I want my encounters to be a little difficult, you know? When I roll poorly, I feel sometimes like everything I've planned goes to waste, since the players aren't getting hit. At one point, a rolled a 3 three times in a row. That's depressing.
Anyway, the 'Watch managed to defeat the elementals and save the children (who all had a couple of Surges left). When they kicked the door back open, they quickly realized that the situation was a hell of a lot more dire than they'd realized: more explosions rang out in the distance, and the stench of black powder filled the air. Desperate shouts and the sounds of battle came from every direction, and it wasn't long before they spied several Lizardmen crawling up from the canals. Zessith's invasion had begun, and he'd caught the city of Strasa completely by surprise.
The Lizardmen were dressed for war, and painted in the colours of at least a dozen different tribes, but each one rallied beneath the black standards of Zehir; many of which were staked-down upon the bodies of fallen guards. A terrifying roar rang out from above the skyline up ahead, and a great beast tore down from the rainclouds like the shadow of death itself. It was a young black dragon, and upon its back rode a monster that could only be Zessith, himself. The black banner of Zehir rippled behind him in the rain.
Their attention soon turned upon the Temple of the Everlasting Storm, Kord's most holy site within Strasa; the temple doors were flung wide, and frightened citizens were scrambling to get inside for protection. The high cleric, his brow stained red with blood, beckoned for the 'Watch. Virgil let the children loose toward him first, then, after collectively deciding that they were in no position to immediately fight back against invasion, the group followed. At this point, Zessith and his black dragon took notice of the group as they were crossing the small bridge toward the temple courtyard, and took off toward them at full-force. The Raven Watch managed to make it safely inside the temple, but the great stone doors were too heavy to close shut. Virgil attempted to make a strength check to get them closed before the dragon could get there -- I told him he'd have 3 rounds to get the doors closed: a roll of 10+ would close the doors by 1/3; a roll of 15+ would close the doors by 1/2; and a roll of 20+ would close the doors completely.
On his first check, he managed to close the doors by about 1/3. On the second round, the dragon was close enough to let loose a cloud of vicious acid that rolled into the temple and caused ongoing damage to both Phaedra and Victoria. At this point, several of the citizens (and the rest of the 'Watch) jumped up and started using Aid Another checks to help Virgil close the doors. Unfortunately, they rolled really poorly, and didn't move the door at all. On the final round, as the dragon was moments away from the temple, the group was able to pull off a 20+ check to close the doors entirely. Mere seconds later, the beast outside slammed up against the heavy stone doors, thrashed about a bit, then took off.
For the moment, they were safe.
The Temple of the Everlasting Storm is Kord's most holy site in Strasa, as I mentioned before. It's one of the tallest structures in the city, and is designed in such a way that it actually attracts lightning. Metal conduits run through the walls, generating massive electric currents. From within the temple, you can literally hear the place thrumming with power. Being a temple to a God of Strength and Warfare, it's also a bit like a fortress. The odds of Zessith breaching the walls of the temple were very, very slim. And so the group decided to rest for a bit, figure out what the hell's going on, and devise a plan to strike back. The High Cleric of the temple also offered the 'Watch several magical items that it had stored away.
Outside, Zessith's invasion continues. Every member of the 'Watch is itching to get out there, but having just come out of a burning building, they're simply in no shape to mount a counter-offensive. For now, they wait. And plan.
