Burning Plague 4e, Part 2

After clearing the kobolds out of the big cave, the group came to the other exit. When they found out that the exit passage was the same size as the entrance and continued to slope downwards, they decided to push the big rock into it and see what they could crush. Since (as they pointed out) a band of kobolds had apparently pushed the rock up the other passage, I couldn't very well set the DC to get it moving down this passage very high. A few strength checks later the rock was on its way to the ritual pit.

The rock wasn't as effective as the girls had hoped, threatening two skeletons and only damaging one. The blazing skeleton was a tough customer, dealing out a lot of damage with its fiery aura. This turned out to be the one fight in the adventure that had them worried.

After dispatching the skeletons, they proceeded to the final battle. I had been really looking forward to this one - I'm a big fan of the 4e hobgoblin warcaster and his abilities that move PCs around the field. I figured I could do some cool stuff with him...

...if he could have rolled any number on 1d20 higher than 5.

I'm pretty sure the only damage the warcaster did during the entire combat was one force pulse that damaged the warlord, and that was just because force pulse does damage on a miss. After that he spent the rest of the combat running from the wizard's flaming sphere and missing with force lore attacks. The rest of the hobgoblins did all right, but without their leader landing a single blow they didn't have a chance.

Analysis:
It's painful when your dice turn what should be a kickass bad guy into a laughingstock. I guess I should be grateful it wasn't Jeff Rients' fire buddy chasing him around the field. Other than that, these fights went pretty smoothly, probably because there wasn't much to them that I could screw up. The skeletons just attacked whoever was closest, and the hobgoblin soldiers closed while the archer and warcaster fired ranged attacks at the party. I even thought about, each round, where the warcaster would shove his target if he hit.