Treasure of Talon Pass, Part 2

After defeating the kobold sentries on the ledge, the group found the kobolds' ladder, got everyone up on the ledge, and pursued the kobold that fled.

In the next room, they encountered the decoy dragonshields who were supposed to draw them into the rear part of the room. The party won initiative and did enough damage to the decoys that they barely escaped the front area with their lives, and never did make it into the rear - the group cut them down in the curtained passageway. The remaining kobolds made a valiant effort, but the party soon got through their lines and took their leader down in a single round with an inspiring display of teamwork. The wizard hit him with Chill Strike and left him dazed, the cleric hit him with Lance of Faith to give the rogue +2 to hit, and the rogue charged in and finished him off with a basic attack and a pile of sneak attack damage because he was dazed.

Analysis:
I've read quite a few complaints that low-level 4th edition monsters (and characters) have way too many hit points, and that it's no fun to have to whack away at them for multiple rounds. This encounter showed that it doesn't have to take multiple rounds for a well-coordinated party to take out a low level monster. It only took three characters to take the kobold wyrmpriest from full hit points to dead in a round, and only one used an ability that wasn't at will (and it was merely a per-encounter, not a daily).

Treasure of Talon Pass, Part 1

August 2nd we got the whole group together again.

When we last saw our heroes, they had just completed the Kobold Hall adventure by slaying the big bad dragon at the end. It was, of course, only a matter of time before further adventure sought them out. The dwarf who commissioned Rhaen to track down the dragon hide in Kobold Hall found her again. He sent them off to Talon Pass to find the Jade Chalice and told them about the orcs also headed that way. After a bit of party gathering they made their way to the ruined Tower of Talon Pass and the dungeon beneath it.

In the entry room they searched the strange rubble and took note of the pieces of blades in it. They tried to sneak up on the orcs in room 3, but were foiled by the guard wolves. A fairly straight fight ensued. Afterward they found the secret door to room 2, but didn't like the look of the passage behind it and left it alone for the time being.

Room 4 was a bit more interesting. They managed to get to the entrance without alerting the kobolds, but they didn't want to face the slingers on their ledge. The warlock crept into the room under cover of Shadow Walk while the wizard tried to set the wooden* ledge on fire with a mage handed torch. The torch distracted two kobolds, but the third spotted the warlock and started firing.

Once the fight was on, the rogue got up on the ledge while the ranged types gave her support from below. The melee types had a round to think they had nothing to do, then the dragonshields came in. In the end, only one kobold slinger escaped to warn the leader in the next room.

Analysis:
This group is both coordinated and large - I need to beef up the remaining encounters before we meet again. I hope I have enough minis for the job. On a side note, why do PCs always want to set everything on fire? Whatever is wrong with them?

* Is it wooden? I think I assumed so because it's drawn a darker color on the map. The adventure text doesn't say. In retrospect it's probably meant to be stone and that's why there are no notes on how much damage it can take.

Revised Cast of Characters

Rhaen Farearitil, human rogue

Maersai Catalpacircle, elf cleric

Revis Hatha, minotaur fighter

Vistra Frostwarden, dwarf wizard

Garback the Younger, dragonborn paladin

Modrothep the Unfinished, tiefling warlock

Yes, I know this is a cheap easy post, but it's been a long day and I'm tired. Besides, I need an up-to-date cast post to refer back to later (like tomorrow when I actually get around to posting part 1 of yesterday's game). And we have a new picture of Garback with his shiny new armor and sword, so it's not a total rehash either.

Hard to Post About Gaming While Gaming

Today was game day. Stories about flying torches and kobolds being turned into paste will be forthcoming... tomorrow. Maybe Monday, tomorrow could be a pretty full day itself. And now... sleep.

Creepy Things in the Sewers, Part 3 (rats and rats)

After defeating two waves of kruthiks above ground and two ochre jellies below, the PCs continued their search for whatever was behind the kruthik invasion of the town.

Down the passage, around a bend, they came to another door. When they opened it, the paladin and ranger were immediately swarmed by rats. The ranger took bite damage and discovered she took more just for starting her turn in the rats' space. She was not happy. She was less happy when the tiefling wizard's response to her cries for help was "How much fire damage can you take?"

The wizard came to her friends' rescue, unloading area-effect fire spells in their general direction. The ranger survived, but was not feeling well at all. More targeted blasting from the wizard and some smashing from the paladin finished the rest of the rats.

There was another door inside the rat room. A stellar listen check was rewarded with the sound of squeaking on the other side. They decided to take these new rats by surprise by tying a rope to the door latch and getting behind the wizard. They yanked the door open and the wizard unleashed Burning Hands, wiping out two giant rats and seriously damaging two more swarms. She then won initiative and spent an action point to hit the swarms with two Scorching Bursts. Then the paladin stepped into the doorway to block the rats' advance. Two rounds later all the rats had been destroyed except one dire rat that sat in the back of the room, watching them.

The last rat turned out to be a wererat, who decided to talk to party rather than engage them. When he found out they were looking for kruthiks, he told them there were gnomes behind the trouble, and happily ratted them out.

Analysis:
Jen's wizard got to shine here - she was really on fire. As far as the wererat hanging back instead of engaging - I was trying to see the situation from his point of view. The rats had an inkling that something was on the other side of the door. Before they could really investigate, the door flew open and three fiery blasts (and a dwarf) came through it. What do you do when your front door flies open and an inferno erupts out of it?

Creepy Things in the Sewers, Part 2 (bugs and oozes)

So after my hurried prep and some dinner, we sat down to game.

The PCs started in the middle of my "village square" map, just standing around talking about the wizard's research into what the gnomes in the library were doing there. The wizard had discovered that the gnomes were doing research into Bael Turath, the ancient tiefling empire. Everyone was puzzled by this.

The ranger heard chittering and hissing noises coming from a nearby house. As they moved to investigate, someone came running from behind the house, pursued by a small swarm of kruthiks. Once this swarm was defeated, another came out of the well in the center of the square, and the PCs dealt with that one pretty handily as well.

Analysis:
By the end of these fights, the girls were using a combination of paladin marks, warlord viper strikes, and kruthik tactics to both stay clear of the kruthik's Gnashing Horde aura and allow the ranger to attack as often as possible while keeping the swarm focused on the (freaking impossible to hit) paladin.

The group went down the well and through an access passage down below into the sewers. The sewer map has lots of 1-square-wide ledges with water on one side and a wall on the other. On one of these ledges they were attacked by two ochre jellies. The jellies used their Flowing Form ability to quickly surround the PCs. The girls pulled back through a door into a side room where they could fight the oozes more on their own terms. Once able to better control who the oozes could attack (see impossible to hit paladin, above), they made short work of them.

Analysis:
When I first sprang this encounter, it looked worse for the party than I had intended - they were surrounded in single file with the ranger on one end and the warlord on the other. Fortunately they managed to pull back with only minor damage (none for the warlord, who Fey Stepped away). I also neglected to use the oozes' Split ability when they became bloodied - once because I didn't have an extra mini handy, and the second time because I forgot.

Creepy Things in the Sewers, Part 1 (maps and prep)

July 26th was supposed to be the next meeting of our full group. I was all set to run Treasure of Talon Pass, which I picked up at Free RPG Day a few weeks ago. I spent hours prepping battle maps, pulling minis, and printing copies of stat blocks so I could run the entire adventure without cracking a core book.

So, of course, I had a player cancel with two hours' notice. It was time to put the much-lauded quick adventure prep abilities of 4e to the test for the reduced group.

Fortunately, I already had a general idea of where the smaller group's next adventure would take place. I had come across a two-sided battle map from an early-3e-era Dragon magazine with a village square on one side and some twisty sewer passages on the other. I had a general idea that the gnomes they fought in the library were going to have friends, and they were all involved in some twisted scheme. This scheme would of course be bad for the town the PCs were in (the one they had saved from the plague in their first adventure).

So, with maps in hand I cracked the DMG to see what it would tell me about constructing a complete adventure from scratch. Hello, page 104:

On average, it takes a character eight to ten encounters to gain a level, with the possible addition of a major quest. For a group of nine encounters, here’s how they might be broken down.

This is followed by a very handy table. For 4 2nd level PCs, that table coupled with the target xp table on page 57 resulted in:
400 xp - 1 encounter
500 xp - 3 encounters, 1 quest
600 xp - 3 encounters
800 xp - 1 encounter

I wanted to throw in a skill challenge, but I didn't think I had time to come up with one. I then went to the Monsters By Level table in the back of the Monster Manual. I simply started jotting down the monsters that didn't appear in Talon Pass so I could try out running as many different monsters as possible. A sample of the encounters I came up with:

1 adult kruthik, 1 young kruthik, 3 hatchling kruthiks – 393 xp total
2 ochre jellies – 600 xp total
2 rat swarms, 2 dire rats, 2 giant rats – 500 xp total

It took a few minutes to figure out what these monsters were doing in the sewers, and a few more to scatter them around the maps I had. Maybe 15 minutes to pull minis. Finally, I copied, organized, and printed off stat blocks for all the monsters and wrote in each one's starting hit points for tracking later.

Analysis:
All told, it took 1.5-2 hours prep time to drive a 4-hour session, and I had encounters to spare (which are scheduled to be played through tomorrow). Given more time, I probably would have tweaked the level down on a tiefling heretic to replace or support my BBEG. I guess since they didn't reach that encounter I still have the option...