Failure is the Spice of Life

As luck would have it my search for a blogging topic was jump started by this article I found through the wonderful RPG Blogger's Network, of which I am a junior grade member.

I'll wait while you go and read it. Go ahead, it's short.

I really got kind of excited trying to think of a creative answer to his post. His campaign world just got a lot more complicated. While complication does not always directly correlate to excitement, in this case, and in a lot of cases, it can. I began to realize that this is not the only situation where failure was a good thing...

Star Wars

While the original series is full of triumphs for the PC's, it also has it's failures. Half of The Empire Strikes back, my personal favorite, is a direct consequence of Han Solo failing his Mechanics roll and stranding the Millennium Falcon in normal space. The heroes still win in the end.
The biggest failure, however, the one that makes the series possible, is Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side and betrayal of the Jedi.

On the surface, this is not a good example for a role playing hook, but consider the string of failures, starting from Episode I, that I can think of right now:
- Obi-Wan and Qui Gonn fail to defeat the droids and get to the bridge, forcing the trade federation to sign a treaty and forestalling the war.
- Yoda failed in his battle against the Emperor.
- Leia failed to deliver the Death Star plans to Obi-Wan.
- Luke failed his rescue of Han and Leia, and loses a hand.
- The rebels fail in their assault of the shield bunker, and are only saved by the introduction of several key NPC's.

I am only highlighting failures that could arise in a similar situation in a role playing game. Did your players fail an encounter that was a lynch pin of the storyline? Perhaps they will need to take the story in a different direction.

Lord of the Rings

Gandalf's failure to recognize the ring for what it is does not really apply to this discussion, nor does Isildur's failure to destroy the ring waaay before the events of the 3rd age that we are familiar with begin.

The largest failure is the encounter where Boromir dies. Admittedly the sheer number of orcs makes me think it is above their level a bit, but regardless it derailed the story somewhat, and split the fellowship. This is the kind of consequence that can destroy a party. The group most likely to be PC's (thanks Shamus!) goes on an entirely different quest to rescue their friends captured in the attack. A perfect resolution for a failed encounter.

The other group fails their skill challenge in traveling through the wilderness and gets captured, and has to succeed in a more difficult skill challenge where they lose one of their PC's. Assuming Gollum is a PC. He is actually representative of a few PC's I have seen...

To avoid this post becoming too long to read I'll stop the movie examples there. Failure is a great opportunity to change the tone of the game, and to bring in an element that you might feel is missing in your games. In our own game which is well documented here, failure could have drastically changed the direction of the game at several key times:
- The first adventure was a success with the defeat of the Necromancer. Had he escaped, the party would have one more powerful enemy in their Rogues Gallery.
- Our fight with the necrotic essence in the strange catacombs under the Giant's Temple could have unleashed a dark presence on the region, had we failed, or exacerbated the problem.
- Our most recent adventure could have ended with a war.

What about you? Any failures that ended up becoming the beginning of a new adventure?

Jay

1/24 Actual Play: Scooby Doo

Bit of a change this session:

Jesse DMed and did not play much of Halma, as will be seen in the write up.
Chelsea playing Ana the Half Elf Cleric
Colin playing Lucan the Elf Fighter
Dan playing Arlarond the Human Wizard
Josh playing Kithieren the Eladrin Swordmage
Jay playing Therryk the Dragonborn Paladin

We picked up right where we left off last session. The party had just defeated the Eladrin in combat and we moved to check for survivors. We were able to subdue 5 of them, and 2 died. The mage who got a thrown axe to the head and the rogue who burned to death both did not make it. Three keep guards were killed as well. Kerlos was obviously disturbed, but resumed his conversation with Lord Markelhay and ordered his guards to keep this quiet for now. The dwarven steward of the keep and one trusted guard moved the fallen out of sight for now and kept watch on the upper level.

Lucan arranged a barricade of the top floor. The talk of goblins in the area had him a bit paranoid, and he clued the rest of the group in on what he was told just prior to the fight. The goblin attack would also make a good scapegoat for the three dead guards. Arlarond went back home to let his master know what happened, and found out that several goblins had attacked the tower, as well. It was clear now that something else was going on besides regular demihuman aggression. Halma suggested that perhaps the goblins were getting in through some old smuggling tunnels in the bluffs.

After a group meeting it was decided to meet back at the keep in the morning to be present for the interrogation of the surviving Eladrin. Therryk returned to his quarters in the temple of Erathis. Ana stayed in the keep. Halma returned to his rented room at the Lucky Gnome. Arlarond went to his tower for the night. Lucan, however, was feeling the effects of the recent goblin attacks. He decided to wander the streets for a few hours and keep an eye out for suspicious things.

After it got dark, he found something suspicious. He saw a figure trying to hide in the bushes. He called out and it tried to flee. He easily caught up to the cloaked figure, and discovered it was a young human woman. She claimed she was in the bushes looking for a place to pee. Lucan believed her, but still took her in, since she was out late and that was suspicious and all. He arrived at the prison and was not happy to see that Constable Blackshield was the one on duty that night. He locked her in a cell and took the keys with him when he left.

The next morning we all met at the keep. All except Halma. He left us a note. Something came up and he would be in Hammerfast for at least a few weeks. We descended a few floors into the dungeon into a part of the keep seemingly dating from the war. We glimpsed a torture chamber, and had to be let through a double set of curtains to get to the Eladrin part of the prison. Kerlos and Lord Markelhay had reached an agreement the previous evening. Kerlos told his men that they had the option of returning to his service or leaving now and going home. Three of them decided to stay here under Kerlos. One remained silent and refused to answer. The last one just wanted to be free. He didn't want to return home or to stay as a vassal of Kerlos. He was granted his freedom.

Arlarond spoke to this Eladrin, whose name was Kithieren, and proposed that he might enjoy adventuring with us. He had no interest at first, but after several minutes of discussion capped off with a sparring match with Therryk he decided to remain with us for a share of the treasure.

Arlarond has a ritual he thinks will help us find the goblins. We go the the map room and he spends several minutes summoning a ghostly hand. The hand points to a spot in the back of the keep near the wall. We search the area, but only find the broken bones and equipment of the defeated goblin invaders. We determine that the ritual failed.

Our next bright idea is to ask the girl that Lucan found the night before. Ana recognized her as a small time entertainer who always seems to be living beyond her means. It doesn't take much to convince her to help us, and she gives us the entrance to a smugglers cave readily. We leave her locked up while we go and investigate.

The old warehouse near the falls does indeed hold a secret, a false wall that leads to some caves under the city. Arlarond sends the key back with a messenger, and we delve under the city, hoping to find some sign of the goblins. We find none.

The path we chose leads us underneath the upper quays and emerges outside the city walls, in an orchard to the north east. We trek back into the city to try the other tunnel we found. It is another fruitless search, this time coming to a dead end.

We decide to try the old catacombs under the city. Therryk knew of them from attending funeral rites for patrons of his church. No goblins were found there either.

Frustrated, after almost an entire day searching, we decide to let Arlarond try the ritual again. This time he asks and the hand points to an abandoned keep about an hour's walk north of town.

Kithieren thinks that our idea of adventuring is tame and boring. As the day comes to a close we might be inclined to believe him. We approach the keep from the west. The sun is setting behind our heads when we finally see signs of goblins. There are some figures moving on the towers of the keep.

As we get closer we realize that this is not just an abandoned keep, it is a ruined keep. The upper floor has fallen into the ground floor, leaving it inaccessible. Goblins are everywhere on the top of this keep, which is now only about 5 feet off of the ground. The towers are still standing, but that is about all. We get as close as we can get under cover of an overgrown orchard, and then rush the building:

The tree line is to the left, with the goblins all massed on the roof of the building to the right. The square is a tower, 30 feet high. Kithieren is the one in front, he just ran to the corner there. Therryk was only able to get partway across in the surprise round. The rest of the PC's have yet to act:
- Kithieren shows off his fey heritage by teleporting to the top of the tower and attacking the goblins there.
- Lucan uses his trident to vault himself up onto the crumbling structure. He is such a badass.
- Arlarond shows off his shiny new spell and fireballs the sleeping goblins. They are now awake and crispy on one side.
- Angry goblins swarm Lucan, surrounding him almost completely. He is delighted, since now he can use *his* brand new daily, one that pokes all the adjacent enemies with his trident.
- Ana keeps to the rear, healing and calling her god's favor down on the increasingly overextended heroes
- Therryk misses pretty much entirely, with both encounter powers and one daily, plus most at-wills. He is a non issue this fight.
- Gnolls appear behind the goblins from their concealment in the rubble. Two gnolls with bows begin shooting arrows at the closest members of the party, who also happen to be the surrounded members of the party, Lucan and Kithieren.
- Kithieren displays his teleportation and elemental mastery by pretty much going where he pleases and attacking multiple enemies.
- One such attack vaporized a goblin and damaged several others, allowing him to teleport to a more advantageous position.
- Ana consecrated a patch of ground and began moving it around the battlefield. Enemies that stayed too long began to get hurt, and hurt allies recovered their strength.
- Arlarond put a sheet of ice on the tower and the stairs, causing two goblins to fall to their deaths when they lost their footing.
- We began to turn the tide, despite Lucan falling and Kithieren becoming close to falling himself. Arlarond's impressive damage and Lucan's deadly aura made it an inevitable win for us.

- Blue rings are Lucan's mark, Orange is Kithieren's, and Pink would be Therryk's, if he had any. Red are bloodied.
- The last goblin bolted, and Lucan and Therryk chased him down. The two gnolls in the tower shooting arrows kept it up, but Arlarond conjured his flaming sphere in the room, and Ana moved her consecrated ground to cover the same area, and the arrows soon stopped.

The only gnolls to survive were the last two. We tied them up and set up camp to rest for the night. During the night one of them woke up and began howling and yelping, waking us up. He was stubborn, but we were able to reach an agreement. He told us all we wanted to know, and we let him go. He was upset with us for killing their goblin slaves. They had come here and sent their slaves into the city to steal some kind of book of prophecy. We discovered that his tribe was working with other tribes who call the Wichlight Fens their home. They made up something called the legion. We went back to sleep, anticipating a trip to the Fens first thing in the morning.

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It is rougher than I thought to do these as a player, coming from a few sessions as a DM. I didn't take the notes I should have...but I got pictures?

So these little notes might be shorter, since I don't have DMing feelings to share. I was disappointed in my character though. Utter fail as a *defender*. He would be a sub-par striker if he could hit with any sort of regularity. I do blame the dice. By the numbers, I should be more effective.

Having seen a swordmage in play for the first time, I am pretty impressed. Very high magic flavor and an effective suite of powers. Like, the opposite of a paladin. Okay, enough sour grapes, I promise. Eladrin seem to be destined to be swordmages, it seemed like Josh had a good time, too. Hope he is able to keep playing with us.

With no DMing in the near future for me, I have been thinking a lot about other aspects of roleplaying. Perhaps if I feel like any of those thoughts are in any way profound I'll post one or two. Perhaps.

Jay

1/17 Actual Play: Lots of answers, lots of questions. Kinda like Lost.

Full house for this session:

Jay: the zombified (due to his DMPC status) Therryk, a Dragonborn Paladin/Warlord
Chelsea: Ana, the Half Elf Cleric of the Platinum God, and bastard daughter of Lord Markelhay
Jesse: Halma the Human Rogue and aged streetrat of Fallcrest
Colin: Lucan the Elven Fighter and self exiled former warrior for the proud elven tribes
Dan: Arlarond, Human Wizard with a back story ripe for exploitation by the DM

We picked things up right where we left off, after a short recap of recent events. The party, thinking to explore the now abandoned mine, approached the only structure there. When they get near it, an Eladrin steps through the Feywild and appears directly in front of them.

He introduces himself declares his intent to kill the party for what they have seen and done. Some back and forth diffuses the immediate tension, but whether or not killing will happen is far from certain. His associates open the door and saunter out of the cabin, and the party now faces 8 well armed and competent Eladrin warriors.

The leader of the Eladrin, who gives his name later as Kerlos, is very calm about informing the party that this quarry was theirs, and that they had no problem allowing the people of Fallcrest to use it for now. Eventually they would come and take what they wanted or needed from them. He agrees to go with the party to Fallcrest to discuss a possible non-violent end to this confrontation.

During the journey several conversations are had:
- Kerlos is not afraid to let the party know some small details about him and his people, as he does not fear them. His people have recently returned from the Feywild after a long absence, and were quarrying material to build fortifications for their city.
- He indicates that in the past his people had been in a conflict with the people of Fallcrest. Though many races make up the population of the city, he and his people refer to them as the Humans.
- In a conversation with an Eladrin wizard, Arlarond is mistaken for his master, indicating that the Eladrin know of him from the previous conflict.
- Kerlos' people aren't too keen on him doing this. They would like to just kill the party and get on with it.

The party makes it to the plains outside Fallcrest after a couple of day's travel and decided to enter the city in the morning. They think that Lord Markelhay might be inclined to harm or discredit the Eladrin, and that bringing them in with a fanfare, escorted by the Heroes of Fallcrest, might bring them some measure of protection.

Three things happen before they get back to Fallcrest:
- Halma sneaks into the city to spread the word that the heroes are returning. He goes straight to the docks and finds the crew of their ship. They are more than willing to help, and split up to cover more ground. He then goes to the Half-moon trading house, the clients that the Guild was recovering the goods for, and is able to determine that their belongings were returned.
- Arlarond is visited by his master and a mysterious outsider. A traveling circle appeared outside the camp shortly after dawn, and Nimozaran the Green and another robed figure step through. They pull Arlarond aside and speak with him. The party doesn't overhear anything, but they do witness the other man pulling his hood back. It is a warforged, with the holy symbol of Ioun emblazoned on his chest. Arlarond shares some of his new knowledge with the party
- While Arlarond is talking with his master, Ana sneaks away. She is conflicted and wants to give her father a heads up. She makes it into town, and is able to speak with her father.

Lord Markelhay is still hosting the Elven Lords that arrived during the Festival. He tells Ana that they have been telling her about the Eladrin returning, too, and that her report is enough to convince him of it's truth. He was certain that the Eladrin had 'sunk below the swamp', but where magic is concerned anything is possible. Ana tells him that the party believes that all the nasties that they have been fighting recently could all be part of a rift that is somewhere in the Wichlight Fens. She thinks that he should at least consider talking with these Eladrin, as Fallcrest can use all the help it can muster if there is another threat on the horizon. The Drow, the Undead cult, these marauding demihumans, and now Eladrin might be too much for Fallcrest to deal with on it's own. He agrees to speak with their leader.

She catches up with the party as they are traveling to the gates of Fallcrest and learns what the rest of the party learned from Arlarond. There is no rift.

At some point more than 30 years ago, but not much, the city of Fallcrest and an Eladrin settlement began fighting. The Eladrin claim that this conflict was because they are entitled to the Nentir Vale. The fighting escalated until the point where some cataclysm happened. The Eladrin completed some ritual designed to win them the war. In response, the wizards of the tower prepared a ritual to rob the Eladrin of their power. As Fey creatures they naturally chose a place to live that was beautiful and close to the Feywild. Nimozaran the Green earned his title be performing a ritual that destroyed the land around the Eladrin city, and shortly after that they disappeared.

Arlarond thinks, as do many who know of this war, that the Eladrin created the plague. His master stressed that there is no evidence of this. The plague is entirely natural, as far as he can tell. Despite their new suspicion they party decides to 'give peace a chance'. The Heroes of Fallcrest are greeted with a roaring crowd. The Lord has managed to get ceremonial guards onto the palisade, and constables keep the road clear enough for the party to make their way to the makeshift stage. The Elven lords are there, as is Lord Markelhay. Nimozaran is absent. Ana speaks first, and welcomes the Eladrin emissaries to their city. Lord Markelhay follows her, and genuinely seems to support the idea of working with the Eladrin. He declares the Fall Festival should continue, and the crowd roars as the whole group of them, Heroes, Eladrin, Elves, and dignitaries, make their way to the Moonstone Keep.

Several party members detect what they feel are unsettling looks and conspiratorial glances between members of Kerlos' retinue. When the whole group gets to the keep, Lord Markelhay and Kerlos begin their talks informally, in his study, and the other groups are led to separate sitting rooms.

Lucan takes the opportunity to speak with the Elf Lords. He had been avoiding them. It is clear that they hold him no ill will, and they begin to speak about recent goblin activities. He tells them of the goblins they have run into, and he finds out that just last night a group of Goblins came over the outer wall and into the courtyard of the Moonstone Keep. These goblins, like the ones Lucan had fought with the party, all had obliterated their ritual scars with ugly brands on the palms of their hands.

His conversation is interrupted by the sound of shattering wood. The Eladrin have made their move. Halma is just getting back from the kitchen, having gone to grab some snacks for the party:
- The upper floor of the Moonstone Keep is not a place for big, epic, open battles. It became a dirty, scary slaughter.
- The dissatisfied Eladrin troops began their assault by kicking in the guard room door outside of Lord Markelhay's study. This attracted the attention of the Elves, who joined in the fight.
- Kerlos was the first one there, and he shouted at them to stop. They did not listen.
- Lucan and Arlarond made up the choke points at the ends of the two halls where the fighting occurred. Arlarond was next to Kerlos, but the sneak on the other side was still able to get some cuts in on him.
- Lucan did a great job of keeping the Eladrin bottled in on his end, despite the teleportation of the Eladrin. By the end of the fight all of them had used their power, yet none got away past Lucan.
- Halma arrived with the food, and did the only natural thing. He flung the pitcher of cheap wine 30 feet down the hall and struck the other rogue with it, drenching her.
- The first round of actual combat was clearly in the party's favor. The Eladrin Warlord died. None of the good guys were seriously hurt.
- The second round all hell broke loose. The two wizards on the other side got off their dailies, and spent action points to shoot off their encounter powers.
- The two rangers did the same, and dropped Lucan and Halma into negatives.
- Ana and Therryk finally made it to the fight after that, Ana just in time to heal her fallen comrades, and Therryk to hurl his axe at the rogue, and then charge her, lighting the cheap liquor on fire with his enchanted axe.
- The focus fire on the rogue killed her before she was able to go again.
- After being on full defense for two rounds, Kerlos finally acted, and his action was to attack the other Eladrin. Two rounds of shouting at them to stop did nothing, so he felt compelled to act.
- Arlarond conjured his fiery orb, and because of the size of the room it shut most of the attempts at escape by the Eladrin down. Unfortunately, it also dropped the just-healed Halma back into negatives.
- The Eladrin were now on the defensive, but the fight was still about even, with 5 of them to the 5 party members and Kerlos. Ana's healing was amped up considerably because of her daily, and both defenders were now in play.
- The only melee fighter left on the other side dropped, and even though the two wizards and two rangers put up a fight, it only took another round or two to finish them off.

We stopped after searching the bodies and recovering more phat lewt. Jesse wanted to pick up right away, and I'm a little nervous...

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My last DMing for awhile. I was reasonably proud of how it turned out. I don't know why it is so hard for me to say, but I have been fibbing about something for awhile now, and it's bugging me, so here it is:

I don't prep for games.

Of course, I sat down at the beginning and wrote out a one page outline, and after I had decided on the 3 story encounters I put together 4 more *random* encounters. I knew what would happen if the party chose to follow the hooks. I knew what I would do if they didn't.

The rest of it was me, standing in the shower, driving to work, falling asleep in church, whenever, just thinking about what I had laid out, and why.

So, when the party decided to talk rather than kill, they were not destroying any sort of carefully planned anything. I had not planned anything. I knew what I knew (Eladrin had a war with Fallcrest!) . I had 5 NPC character sheets and that was all. I ad-libbed everything. I made some things up.

Some of the stuff I had thought about came in handy. I had thought that if the party needed some exposition regarding the whole mission to the quarry, Nimozoran should be the one to do it, in a mysterious, comes at night and goes with a teleportation ritual sort of way. All this stuff was sort of floating in my head, and when it all came out . . . it came out better than I thought it would. I am not trying to convince anyone that this is Shakespeare, just that I was entertained, and hopefully so were my friends, and . . . that’s all?

On to the other stuff. Running NPC's is kind of a pain. Their stat blocks are huge. This is an inverse relationship to their HP, which are small. I never marked with either NPC Fighter. The Rangers only quarried towards the end of the fight. The wizards never used their wands.
In a big field, 1 on 1, the party wins hands down. With superior numbers, the party can still win . . . so far. At higher levels this might change. The thing is, NPC's have no real distinction between Daily and Encounter abilities. They only get to fight once. They might as well (and I hate this phrase) 'go nova' and use daily, action point, and encounter. After that they are just bags of HP. Not very big bags.

My one regret with this storyline is the strain that puts on Eladrin player characters. Were anyone to die and want to try one out, I have just created a good roleplaying reason for everyone to hate them. I don't really want to do that to anyone's character. It might be a non-issue.
I'm out, return next week for more pictures and better combat notes! Hopefully Therryk is cured of his Zombie state! Hurrah!

Jay

1/12 Actual Play: Kill, Kill, Kill

We were one short this session, but Colin played Ana along with Lucan, so we still had 5 characters:

Jay, playing Therryk the Dragonborn Paladin and DMing
Dan, playing Arlarond the Human Wizard
Jesse, playing Halma the Human Rogue
Colin, playing Lucan the Elven Fighter and Ana the Half Elven Cleric

As I mentioned before, the fight was barely won by the PC's and they found a good place to camp for the night. Ana was feeling the pain of repeated focused attacks by the Ettercaps, and was a little woozy when Arlarond's Eyes of Alarm began repeating

"Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning...."

Waking to the alarm, the four heard the creak of a wagon approaching. The dim glow of a lantern appeared and the party hid, preparing to spring an ambush.

They were taken aback when they recognized their horse. . .pulling their wagon. Lucan stepped from the shadows, and greeted the driver. It was the captain of their hired ship from earlier. He had heard that the party left with a different crew, and had his ship moved down the falls so that he could take over the duty of ferrying them down the river. He spied the small boat tied up at the bank and sent it back to Fallcrest.

While the party appreciated the gesture, they did not feel that they needed the help. . .at least right now. Lucan volunteered to escort the captain back, and the party all crawled back in their bedrolls.

A few hours later, with Therryk on watch, the three sleeping party members were shaken awake. It was just before dawn, and Therryk had heard something sneaking up from the Southeast. The party had just begun to explore what it might be, when two beefy goblins with battleaxes stumbled into the clearing.
- This fight was a wizard's dream. 2 melee goblins, 2 sharpshooters, 1 hexer, and 12 minions.
- The sharpshooters attempted to stay at range where they had better skill at hitting the party, but Halma closed with them. He enjoys shutting down the ranged element, and did a super job this fight.
- Arlarond's staff rained flame down, missing his allies but scorching all of the goblins within sight of him. Most of the minions dropped dead.
- Lucan and Therryk had the goblins with axes locked down, until both of them maneuvered to flank Therryk and hacked him down, unconscious (2 crits!)
- Ana spent much of her time healing us back up, as the goblins whittled us down.
- The hexer maintained a large area of the battlefield with a thick cloud that hampered melee combat. Unfortunately, with the battle the way it was, most of the damage was being done in other ways.
- Still untouched, the hexer attempted to retreat after the last of the minions and axe wielding goblins dropped. Halma had kept the sharpshooters mostly out of it, and with the goblin's front lines gone, the party quickly overwhelmed and slaughtered them.

More loot was found, and the party decided that the night was over, so they may as well adventure on. Lucan returned shortly after the party struck camp, and they resumed following the wagon tracks East.

After a couple more hours of walking, the party saw a ruin in the distance, and snuck up on a collapsed settlement. Too small to be self sustaining, the stone ruin was most likely an outpost or monastery of some kind. Anymore it was swallowed up by the forest, with thick undergrowth coming right up to the edges of the buildings. The wagon tracks entered the ruin, and they found the empty wagon inside an old building.

Halma did some initial sneaking, and saw that there were a few humanoids lounged in a nearby building. The largest one in the settlement, at some point a large statue or obelisk had collapsed, taking out the majority of the West wall. The roofs of all of these buildings had been destroyed, meaning that the only shelter was to be had in this two story building, as the second story floor protected the lower level from the elements.

Halma climbed onto the second floor and hid, while Ana attempted to parley with them. Hostile from the beginning, the ruffians became more dangerous when it appeared that one of the dragonborn recognized her. All attempts at diplomacy collapsed and cowboy diplomacy ensued.
- 2 Dragonborn Soldiers and 3 Dwarven Bolters faced the party.
- The Soldiers were able to pin the party between a wall and the rubble of the collapsed wall for a few rounds, and the dwarves were able to hit very well.
- Halma dropped down behind one of the soldiers and Lucan charged in. Lucan is very good at moving enemies around and the Soldiers were now the ones pinned in the corner of the room by Lucan, Halma, and the terrain.
- Once Therryk was able to get in on the fight, Halma was able to disengage to attack the dwarves. They had scattered due to an earlier cold attack from Arlarond.
- It was down to two of the dwarves hiding in a storage room, and Arlarond hit them with a less powerful blast of ice, but this one knocked a dwarf down and coated the area in ice. That was the end for them, and the encounter ended.

Searching the storage room, the party found trade goods consistent with what they were looking for. They found some magic items and art objects on the bandits. Halma tied up two of them, a dragonborn and a dwarf, and when he attempted to move them into the rubble something caught his eye. A long overlooked vault that must have been inside the statue. He pried the lid off, and the chest inside held a king's ransom in residuum.

It was decided to send an animal messenger to the crew of their ship and have them bring the wagon. With the wagon loaded with goods and two groggy criminals, the party settled down in the best defensible position around, the bandit hideout they had just cleared out.

The wagon made it's way back to the boat, and the party settled down to wait and relax. Halma, from his position on the second floor, had only a second to warn the party of the approaching orcs before they burst into the ruin. Leading the charge was an 800 lb boar:
- Unfortunately, due to the layout of the party at the time, the boar was able to charge in and attack Ana and Arlarond, the two squishiest members of the party.
- Following them were two orcs with axes, and two more with a brace of handaxes at their waist.
- The whole fight was a condensed mess in the building, with almost all participants crowding in right around the boar, either to hit it, or on the orcs side, to hit the party that had come to hit the boar.
- Without room to charge and gore, it's preferred maneuver, the boar had to shuffle back 5 feet at a time, and charge. He was able to do this only once before the concentrated fire took him down.
- The big orcs were the real threat anyways, and once they were bloodied their battle rage began to inflict some serious damage on the party.
- Once again Halma moved to intercept the ranged element, only to discover that they were just as effective, if not more so, while in melee. Luckily the rest of the party joined him a round or so after they entered melee combat with him
- Another victory for the party, and more gear for them to use.

At this point they were pretty badly beaten, and when the empty wagon returned they elected to remain there over night to nurse their wounds and prepare for more battle. They were surprisingly unmolested all night, and with Ana's knowledge of where to go, they intercepted an old road that wound through the quarries in the area.

It was a beautiful fall day, the party was riding in the back of their wagon, low hills all around, and then something had to go and ruin it all. Of course.

The old road was rounding a bend to the left, and appeared to end in a large quarry with a run down shack. Something was out of place, the party noticed immediately. In the smaller quarries that the party had already passed, nature had reclaimed them to some degree. While the square blocky cuts made to remove stone cannot be erased so quickly, the vegetation had returned in all other cases.

The bare stone was their only warning, as the wagon pierced the illusory bubble protecting the quarry and the party was witness to chaos. A teleportation circle near the wagon was flocked to by a host of people. At first the party could easily mistake them for elves and halflings, but they didn't look quite right. It was Eladrin and Gnomes, working together at the quarry.

With the advance notice that the party was arriving, the squatters at the quarry had made preparations. A handful of Gnomes rushed towards the party, led by two that had rods. As they entered the gravelly region near the road, they snapped the rods in two, and a large creature made of gravel and stone rose almost immediately from the rubble. Riding on his shoulders were the two gnomes, and they controlled him with the rods that were sticking from his body. The rest of the gnomes disappeared in a glamour created by a gnomish wizard, and the golem rushed the party:
- The party had half a mind to talk their way out of combat, but it was clear they would not be allowed the chance.
- It was obvious to everyone that the golem was the real threat, and everyone focused on him. . .except for Halma, who made his way to the other side of the battlefield to combat the wizard and the three other gnomes that had disappeared.
- The golem got to go twice a round, on account of him having two controllers, and he proved his deadliness by unleashing an avalanche on the party, leaving the area covered in debris and badly hurting those caught in the area.
- The other gnomes were much less powerful than the party, and served mostly as a distraction. Upon breaking their hide to attack, they were opened up to much killing by Halma
- It took only a few rounds to bloody the golem, which was signalled by a blow from Lucan killing the gnome nearest him.
- The golem managed to put some serious hurt on the party before it died, bet even then, it was almost to single digit hit points before anyone found out it had reach. They had swarmed it so quickly.
- Arlarond was the one to do the deed, blasting the second gnome from his perch on the shoulder of the gnome with a magic missile.

We stopped there, as any further exploration of the quarry was likely to initiate another encounter...
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So, as predicted by my, I was a bit rusty. I didn't have much creative drive this time at all, and so to me it felt like a series of combats. No real roleplay. In fact, it was so combat heavy we blew through 4 encounters. That is double what I was expecting.

With Chelsea gone, I thought to bring the wagon along. Ana could remain in the wagon while the party did their thing and no oddity would have to occur next week to bring her back to the party. Colin had just planned on playing her as well, so the arrival of the wagon was a bit awkward.

My idea with this sandbox is to have encounters related to the adventure, and encounters that I would put in when I felt they would be. . .entertaining. Or relevant. They are random encounters without the random aspect that I dislike. At this point the party has fought all of the random encounters, and there is only one story encounter remaining. Amazing what skipping all roleplaying will do for the encounters per session ratio. We were at something like 2:1, I'd guess. so four is. . .out there.

Hopefully next week, with the resolution to two 'quests' to get through and a major battle, we will get some good combat and roleplay both, and everyone will have fun.

The Gravel Golem was an invention of mine for this combat. I had toyed with the idea of a de-leveled bulette, but the de-leveling left it weak. I attempted to build a bulette with the creature creation rules in the DMG but didn't really like it. I present the gravel golem to you, warts and all:

Gravel Golem Level 6 Elite Brute Large Fey Animate XP 500
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +6
HP 172; Bloodied 86
AC 19; Fortitude 21, Reflex 17, Will 18
Immune Disease, Poison
Saving Throws +2
Speed 6
Action Points 1
M Swat (Standard; at-will)
Reach 2 Target: One creature +9 vs AC 1d6+4 damage and push 1 square Bloodied damage: 1d10+4
R Boulder (Standard; at-will)
Ranged 5 Burst 1 Target: Each creature in burst +7 vs Ref 1d6+4 damage Bloodied damage: 1d10+4
c Avalanche (Standard; recharge 6)
Close blast 3 Target: Each creature in blast +7 vs Reflex 3d6+4 damage, 1/2 damage on a miss Bloodied damage: 3d8+4, 1/2 damage on a miss Effect: The area is difficult terrain for the rest of the encounter
Double Actions
A Gravel Golem rolls initiative twice, gets two turns during a round, and has a full set of actions (standard, move, minor) on each turn. Each set of actions corresponds to a different Gnome. The Golem's ability to take immediate actions refreshes on each of it's turns.
Bloodied Fury
A Gnome is killed when the Gravel Golem is bloodied and the Golem only has one turn each round for the remainder of the encounter. In addition, each of the Golem's attacks now do the bloodied damage.
Alignment Unaligned Languages
Str 20 (+8) Dex 14 (+5) Wis 16 (+6) Con 16 (+6) Int 3 (-1) Cha 7 (+1)

I really liked how he performed, very brutish. He did not hit a whole lot and was a pretty big and easy target in turn. The one alteration I made while running it. . .and regretted it. . .was that I did not take away his second action once he was bloodied. I felt that they had bloodied him so fast, that he would not be worth his status as an Elite if I did that. Colin asked about it once the session was over, and it would have been a cool thing had I done it. Thinking about this later, giving him tremorsense should have been obvious. Starting him further from the party would be a good idea, too, allowing him to use more than just his basic melee attack.

Next week we finish my adventure and hit 5th level. The rest of the session will be character creation for a Star Trek one shot that Dan wants to run. We are planning on using the FATE system, which I have not used before. Should be interesting.

Jay

Back in the Saddle

Uh, wow. I have not posted in almost a month.

This is mostly because we have only played once since my last post, a 16th level one shot run by Dan. It was a lot of good fun, I got to play the Dwarven Ranger I have been itching to play. Honestly it is just the dual wielding dwarf that pushes my buttons, whether it is a fighter or a ranger. . .something about using two uberweapons at a time makes me happy. Can't imagine why. Though my first ever character was a dual wielder. I have always liked the idea of it, and in 4e there is a lot more chance to make it viable. The parrying dagger combined with two weapon defense is just as good as a shield, and a lot cooler for me to imagine. What a nerd.

I didn't blog about the one shot because with the holidays eating up increasing portions of my free time and work and trying the warcraft free trial . . .blogging took a back seat. So did most things D&D, really.

I run again in two days. Luckily I have all my prep done. I have started putting my adventures together a level at a time, so I will run until the party is 5th. That way I can use the DMG's guidelines for encounters (3 at level -1, 3 at the party's level, and one at the level +3) plus add a quest reward and we don't worry about giving out experience. Everyone levels together whether they show up or not.

I am a little anxious about whether I will be able to get with it right away. A month long DMing break, compounded by ending on a cliffhanger, will mean that I am liable to make at least one stupid DM call. I have decided to call the end of the fight. Although Chelsea was taking a beating, the rest of the party was still doing. . okay. Jesse tends to run out of surges first, which you might imagine since he is the most frail of the melee types. We were going to have to rest anyways, so I decided that trying to pick this up after such a long gap would be a stretch. The party will start with an extended rest, and move on from there.

I also am moving to make a change about my stupid, stupid DM mistake from last session. Someone asked if we could keep our same boat and crew from the last adventure, and the waterfall made me say that no, we couldn't. A classic example of saying no when I should have said yes, and for no real reason other than it was seemingly impossible. This in a world filled with magic. I have since thought of a half dozen or so good reasons why the boat and the crew could have come, and I am going to bring em along. Why not, right? Building up cool NPC's is part of what makes DMing enjoyable.

So. . .I *will* be getting back on it. If there is anyone that was following along. I don't get much traffic but I do get some. Probably my mom or something. Hi mom!

Jay

12/13 Actual Play: Part II, or the beginning of something exciting.

Continued from above! I just don't have the heart to pile all that text on you at once. Maybe I need to assign someone to take pictures for me. A lot is on my mind already as I DM, I can't imagine where I would put one more thing...

The party went on up to the Moonstone Keep to see if they could find out what was going on. Lucan was clearly not happy about the arrival of the Elves, and did what he could to remain out of sight. Arlarond distracted the soldiers by using his magic to help them groom their animals. Ana tried to convince the guards to let her in the Keep, but they had been told nobody gets in, and her wiles fell flat.

She remembered that as a child she would squeeze out of the window in the laundry. She found the low window and climbed in. Arlarond sent his familiar through, and had it take the shape of Petunia, her 1/2 ton pet pig. With this ready excuse for being where she shouldn't (the pig did it), she snuck through the first floor and up the stairs. With a couple close calls but no alarms, she made it to a secret passage behind the Lord's study. All those years of snooping around paid off again, as she had a front row seat to the tail end of the meeting of the Lords. With little context, she was only able to find out the the Elves had come to warn Fallcrest about an old common enemy. Lord Markelhay did not seem convinced and asked the Lord if they could continue their conversation in the morning, after he had slept on it.

Ana returned to her friends and relayed what she had overheard, but Arlarond and Lucan, the two most steeped in History and the Elves could not think of what enemy they could be referring to.

After that dead end, the party elected to get in a good night's sleep before setting out in the morning. After a geography refresher they decided that checking up on the quarry and finding the fate of the stolen cargo would both be possible, since they were both in an unknown location South of Fallcrest.

Halma needed to create a diversion. He had a room paid for at the Lucky Gnome, but in a concession to common sense decided that putting a decoy in his room and joining the rest of the party in our Inn of choice was a better idea. Ana and Arlarond went with him to make sure he was safe, with Lucan and Arlarond not far behind.

He procured some dummy making supplies, straw, cloth and the like, and snuck in with the bag of holding to build it in his room. He did not count on Ervan waiting there to speak with him again. Ervan missed Halma, but spotted Ana and called her over to his table. He wanted to know where Halma was, and was getting quite verbally abusive until Arlarond intervened. At one point several of his lackeys stood up and he demanded that she leave the place.

After a verbal pissing match with Arlarond, they all sat down at his table, and talked things out. Ervan was mostly concerned about how this will hurt his reputation. As a dealer in information, if nobody trusts him that they will be paid he will loose business. He can't show weakness or allow it to look like he let Halma walk all over him. He needed the goods back with their owners, and he was willing to pay his informant out of his own pocket and let the group keep the entire reward if they would fix this for him.

During this exchange several things came out about Halma's past. He was a one-time leader of a splinter thieves' guild, and in the recent past had become involved in a brutal and nasty guild war. He managed to emerge with his skin whole, but with nothing else. For the past five years he has stayed a drunk and Ervan has moved up, to the point where now Ervan was in some position of power in the new guild, and Halma had no standing at all. The bad blood from this past feud had caused Ervan to overreact when he thought the olive branch of an offer of work had been abused by Halma. With both sides seeing a clearer picture, some agreement was reached. While working for the guild was on some level distasteful for members of the party, working to help clear their friend's name was noble and good, so they agreed to do this one thing for Ervan. For his part, Ervan seemed to view this as the beginning of a new long and beautiful arrangement between the Heroes of Fallcrest and the Guild of Thieves. It will remain to be seen now this develops.

The night passes uneventfully, and the group departs on a boat early the next morning. The storm is still putting a hurt on river travel South of Fallcrest, so a smaller boat was needed. Large enough for them to take their wagon, of course.

After almost eight hours of travel, the party spies a boat wreck on the Eastern shore of the river. It appears that they found the boat they were looking for sooner than they thought they would. They disembarked and started towards it to investigate. About fifty feet away from the boat they were surprised by an abomination made of plants and plant parts emerging from the forest -
- Three darts whizzed from the river's edge and caught Lucan on his neck. While the darts were trivial, their poison caused him to act sluggishly.
- The three lizardfolk with blowguns scattered, two of them disappearing near the wreck, and one making for the treeline.
- After the party rushes towards the Vine Horror, he takes his action (Having delayed since the beginning of the round), to run to where he can hit the whole group and unleashes a horrific crushing vine attack. Roots and creeping vines erupted from the ground and began crushing and killing the whole party, except Therryk whom he missed.
- The Greenscale Darters targeted those Heroes that managed to burst free of their vines, trying to keep them poisoned and slowed.
- The status effects were mostly an annoyance, since the main combatants were too tender to protect themselves once the party freed themselves of the vines and the effects of the poison. They were unable to retreat into the safety of the river or the trees, and were killed quickly.

Searching the boat was profitable. Aside from signs of struggle and several indications that suggested that the crew had been taken or killed by lizardfolk, Ana found a strongly enchanted Rapier, and some gems and gold were recovered from the lizardfolk.

Wagon tracks lead into the woods. The wagon appeared to be heavily laden, and pulled by horses, so the party figured that someone had taken the cargo that was on this boat away by wagon. The party headed East though the forest. By now the sun was low in the sky, and the thick foliage blocked much of the remaining light. The trees here were twisted by some unknown force, and misshapen.

The Heroes never saw it coming. From high in the branches Two Deathjump Spiders and Two Ettercaps descended on silent webs, and struck the party from the corners. Thinking to make themselves hard to hit with an area attack, the party had spread out, two defenders in front, cleric and rogue in the rear, and wizard in the center. Each of the corners was attacked, with only one of the spiders hitting, and then the apparent leader of this ambush struck. An Ettercap with a longspear covered the entire area with a sticky web, immobilizing some and making it difficult for the rest to move -
- The spiders leapt around, but missed with every attack. They were singled out and eliminated quickly by the party.
- The Ettercaps with axes tried a few different targets with little luck, but were finally able to flank on Ana and both hit. Their poison was deadly effective, and she was stunned and poisoned until she fell to the ground, unconscious.
- We stopped there.
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The orange die is a flaming sphere courtesy of Arlarond. The red outline is the webbed area that is difficult terrain. You know, difficult terrain is my new found best friend for making difficult combats. This is a 3rd level combat, so it should be not difficult, but the ambush hitting all of the party meant that only Lucan, who is an elf and can shift in difficult terrain, and Hamla, who got out in his first round, have been able to do much in the way of moving. I apologize for the cruddy pictures. Cellphone camera + bad lighting combined for cruddy pictures. The air and fire elementals are the ettercaps flanking a dying Ana. The monster next to the die is the Ettercap Webspinner, who is still untouched. The earth elemental with the red ring to show that he is bloodied is a spider.

I am really coming around to liking the pipe cleaners a lot. My only difficulty with them is when it comes to PC's. It is easy to determine which monster is bloodied or marked, but players keeping the marks at their spot is not working 100%. Having them be on their minis would be a little better, but since the healing and debuff removal of PC's is many times better than monsters, we would be constantly moving and removing them. I think a good compromise is using the little markers that came with the whiteboard (they look like Sorry pieces), putting them at the edges of the board in front of each player and stacking the conditions up there. Putting the markers at the initiative count would work too.

So. . .the confrontation with Ervan was not in the cards. Originally he was going to be there to harass Halma a little more and press the urgency of his request. It was roleplayed well, though, and the moral quandary the party was put in was just delicious. I am a little sad to have had Therryk be there, but not roleplay his possible connections to the Guild. One of the reasons I have DMPC's and wish we had one more reliable player.

Ana's spy mission was also improvised. Especially entertaining given that she does not have the ranks in stealth to pull something like this off reliably. Lucky rolls on her part paired with unlucky rolls on mine got her all the way up unobserved. Good bit of fun there.

The combats this go-around are built with a better eye to enemy combat roles. The first combat I knew would be short. 3 Lurkers, 1 Controller, and 2 Minions. The Controller was dead meat the instant he showed his face, and the Minions are there because I delight in mixing them in with the regulars and seeing my party sweat. I have a new love of Lurkers. They do crap damage compared to Skirmishers. I don't care, they are fun to run.

The second combat is currently paused. I had a friend who would pause Super Mario Brothers while he went to school, and come back something like 6 hours later and pick it up again. Kinda like that. I think it could still go either way. Ana is down and taking ongoing 5 poison, she is stunned and restrained, and flanked by 2 Ettercaps, neither of whom is bloodied. The spiders are all but dead (one down, the other one a virtual minion), but they never hit anyways. The other Ettercap was only recently hit at all, and still has a lot of fight in him.

Thus, the party will have fought two 3rd level encounters, and be in rough shape and need an extended rest. 4th level is not looking good for them. I am a little worried for them...

Jay

12/13 Actual Play: The Autumn Festival, Interrupted

This session went well, I thought. I was running though, so maybe this is not the unbiased opinion you are looking for. That also means that I did not take notes and was only able to get one picture of the action. I will do my very best to lay it all out, though...

Jay DMed and played Therryk the Dragonborn Paladin
Dan was playing the newly resurrected Arlarond, Human Wizard
Jesse played Halma, the Human Rogue
Colin was Lucan, Elven Fighter
and Chelsea played Ana, Half Elf Cleric.

We picked up the party as they journeyed down the river back to Fallcrest. Gennal left them to do some rangery foresty things, and the party enjoyed a leisurely float home. The crew of the ship was feeling good about their contributions to the adventure, and insisted on being told over and over again how their knots and ropes helped the party descend below the temple.

They party arrived home early in the morning of the annual Autumn Festival. News of their arrival must have preceded them, as there were two guards waiting to escort Ana to speak to her father, and a less benevolent welcome awaiting Halma.

Lord Markelhay was waiting for his daughter in his study. He was mostly concerned about the Heroes of Fallcrest being missing for so long. He had planned on asking them to travel South of town and secure the old quarries. Fallcrest was in hills dotted with quarries. Most of them were private operations run by individual stonemasons or groups providing stone for artisans. The trade had dwindled over time, to the point where now, nearly ninety years after the Southern wall was destroyed there was no sign that it would ever be reconstructed.

Until now. The recent news of the Drow just to the Northwest of the city, along with the escalation of other threats in the wilds has motivated the Lord to begin reconstruction of the wall. A palisade was erected while the party was gone, and Ana's father had intended the group to complete it's tour of the Southern quarry before the Autumn Festival to allow him to announce it's reconstruction during the festival. With no time to do that, Lord Markelhay asked his daughter to take the Heroes of Fallcrest South and see to the quarry, and he would announce that it had already been done. He gave her rough directions to help her find it, but as it had been centuries since anyone had done any serious work there, it might still be difficult to find.

Halma's meeting was less cordial. The man wishing to speak to him was familiar. So was their conversation. A blast from the past, so to speak, this was the same thug that had pulled Halma aside on our very first session. I didn't include it in the write up there, so I will summarize. Weeks ago this man, Ervan Lances, had pulled Halma aside and told him that the powerful storm had delayed a cargo ship headed to Fallcrest from the South. His informant told him that it had been damaged and that the owners of the ship would be willing to pay whomever could retrieve their cargo.

Ervan now told Halma that he had information linking Halma to a recovery of this cargo, and demanded his cut of the reward. Halma naturally had no idea what he was talking about. Ervan, feeling cocksure told Halma that he would give him 'some time' to come up with the money, and that they would speak again.

The party made their way to the Blue Moon Alehouse. They had decided that when they could they would meet up here at noon, were they ever seperated. Lucan spied someone in the crowd, and was surprised to see Arlarond striding towards them. Last anyone had seen of him, he was dead on a slab in the Temple of Erathis. While tight lipped about specifics, apparently he had been raised by a Temple of Ioun, and had been studying and rehabilitiating while he waited for his friends to return.

The party got a table in the taproom and discussed recent developments. Halma and Ana relayed their new information, and everyone enjoyed the chance to relax and have some fun at the carnival.

A stage had been set up inside the courtyard of the Moonstone Keep. A constable kept order, allowing anyone who wished to perform for the crowd, and marked down the stand out acts. A few members of the City Council were there to help choose the best talents of the day. Halma decided he would try his hand at some juggling and slight of hand. From the crowd Arlarond spiced up his show by making the daggers appear to be flaming or enchanted in other ways. Halma used the magical properties of his dagger to make it dissapear only to reappear in his hand, and the crowd loved it. He catered to the crowd and kept them thinking he was an instant away from painful failure.

Arlarond tried next, using his magic to make bright fireworks burst in the sky, and his new pet owl flew circles around them. The crowd was dazzled by his display, but Halma's act would be hard to beat.

The last of our group to try was Ana. She had been working up some jokes to tell before the crowd. Arlarond helped cover the groans and stunned silence with some illusion of laughter, but it was clear that the previous acts had stolen their hearts. In the end, Halma's act edged out the others, though he was put into a sudden death with an elderly Tiefling quiltmaker and her gorgeous quilts. Though her talent was undeniable, Halma's ability to play to the crowd won him the day, and the first winner's token of the day!

Next was the eating contest. A local bakery supplied the pies for 1 cp apiece, and this was one of the more popular contests. More than a few people dropped out, however, when the almost 7 tall foot bulk of a dragonborn named Therryk got in line. Arlarond also got in line, and in all there were seven eaters for the first heat. Arlarond was one of the first two elimintated, but Therryk survived through the next heat of 5, and into the final round, with two bulky humans. It was looking like the end for Therryk, the guy to his left was clearly going to win. Suddenly, though, he got a pained look on his face and excused himself from the stage. Seconds later the sound of retching could be heard from around the corner. Arlarond later confessed to using a little magic to make his pie taste like warm snot. The edge was enough, and Therryk earned the second token of the day!

The contest was over in time for the group to enter the Treasure Hunt. The edges of the Tombwood held 5 small golden coffins. The person or group to find the majority would win the contest. Ana and Lucan had the sharpest eyes in the group and signed up. Beforehand, Arlarond and Halma pulled them aside and gave them several pointers about good hiding places and in spotting something unnatural in the woods. Ana was able to locate two, and Lucan two more, meaning they shared the win for the third token.

The next even was the most popular of the day. The town sponsored a wrestling competition. Men and boys from all over town came in to try their hand at each other and win a token. This competition was popular enough that all five members of the party entered it, though Therryk was eliminated early. Lucan was unlucky and his first and last opponent seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of how to subdue him. Ana was the only woman who signed up, and her opponent was clearly disturbed by that. The members of the town guard in the area no doubt contributed to that, so the lad took it easy on her. Her downfall came in a moment of bravado, when she mounted the corner post and attempted to dive onto him. Her clumsy maneuver was easily avoided and he plopped on top of her, keeping her down and knocking her out of the running.

Halma was a dark horse in this competition. He was smaller and more wiry than everyone else (aside from Arlarond), but used his quickness to great advantage. Intimidating his opponent with his dagger prowress was just the edge he needed. He won his first match handily, and moved on to the next round.

Arlarond was the real underdog. He used a bit of magic to coat his bare torso in a slippery film. His opponent was clearly not expecting this to be much of a threat, and was surprised when Arlarond slipped from his grasp. This happened a few times. Arlarond was eventually able to get him pinned down and move on to the next round.

A few more fights narrowed the field down to four, Arlarond, Halma, the man who had defeated Lucan, and one other. Luckily Arlarond and Halma did not have to fight each other. Halma won his match quickly and easily, but Arlarond struggled. While he slipped out of holds again and again, he couldn't maintain his grip on the other guy. After a long fight, he was finally subdued.

Halma's final fight was pretty anti-climatic. He evaded the first grapple and moved behind his enemy, subding him and winning the contest. Another token won, and Halma's second.

The next contest was the carnival. All day the thieves' guild was running games down in the Lower Quays. A wooden token was hidden somewhere, in one of the games, and you can bet that the game was rigged to allow only the person that they wanted to win. The party played some games, and found the token. Halma elected to play a dart game, where for a copper the player got three darts to throw at a board. The board was covered with inflated bladders, and popping one won you a prize. Halma threw all his daggers at once in a blinding barrage, but was puzzled when one of the darts just bounced off it's target. He slyly threw his dagger at that balloon and it returned to his hand immediately. The thug running the contest was obviously confused, as the rigged balloon should not have burst, but gave up the prize anyways. Halma's third token!

The next contest was an all day affair. A board in the courtyard of the Nentir Inn was erected with names on it. Anyone could ask to have their name on the board. People came by all day long and chose the person they thought most deserving of the token. Ana put her name up, and loitered for awhile talking to passers by and garnering votes. Her position as one of the Heroes of Fallcrest certainly helped, and her contributions to the town before that. The only serious competition they saw was Constable Blackshield. The party had an intense dislike of him, and spent some time following him around and telling the people he spoke to the truth about him. Most were appaled by his behaviour, and this sealed the deal for Ana, earning her a token when the votes were counted.

The last two competitions were tough for the party to participate in. The Livestock competition was to show off animals that had been raised in the past year. While Ana had been raising a 1000 lb pig named Petunia, it was not as impressive as some of the other animals. Nobody elected to try and cook something, either.

The day was ending when people gathered at the gates of the Moonstone Keep to hear Lord Markelhay announce the winner. With 6 of 8 tokens it was clearly the Heroes of Fallcrest. He presented them with a staff (his confused look betrayed the fact that he had not expected this to be the winning prize), and the party led the procession down to the Southern wall.

Lord Markelhay had been busy. He had ordered a scaffold built and had the green dragon draped over it, with its wings spread and looking dangerous. A gallows was nearby. In the shadow of the dragon he outlined the recent threats to the city. A man with a sack on his head was walked to the gallows, and the hood torn off.

The party recognized him, it was one of the Drow they had captured, the one they called the cabana boy. A noose was placed over his neck and he was hung until dead. By now the mood was somber indeed. Lord Markelhay began to outline his plan. The Heroes of Fallcrest had been working for the city again! The need to rebuild the wall was great, and the Heroes had been to the quarry and established a base there. Soon stoneworkers would begin the work of walling in the city and making everyone safe once again -

He was interrupted by Nimozaran the Green coming on stage. He whispered something in Lord Markelhay's ear. From their higher vantage on the stage they could see something over the palisade. Lord Markelhay called for the gate to be opened and the entire city of Fallcrest watched the Elves enter the city.

Four Elves riding on War Zebras entered first. They were dressed in ceremonial armor and were flying the banner of the Elf tribes of the Harken Forest. They were followed by an enormous tortoise. A howdah on the back held an Elf Lord, and a strangely dressed elf, similar to a witch doctor, sat on the leading edge of the shell and guided the beast. At this development, Lord Markelhay was ushered away, and the Elves followed him to the Moonstone Keep.

The Festival had ended in a sudden manner, and the party now had several decisions to make.

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That was the first ninety minutes of the game. I had a great time running it. I had created this Festival with a couple adventure hooks and a lot of roleplay. My goal was to do this, and then unleash the party. Let them go. No rails. Try some semblance of the sanbox we had set out to do.

This is a good argument for not trying a 100% sandbox approach. Only bringing in content as the party discovers it is cool, but scheduling something like this with the party's participation implicit with it's creation allowed for a whole sled of roleplaying, and aside from being very fun to do, allowed for a lot of character development. As a DM it was great because the increased definition in everyone's backstories allows me to come up with better and more pressing hooks.

The best moment for me was the mention of Constable Blackshield. The party has had a couple bad run ins with this stereotype of a crooked cop, and just mentioning him riled them up. Real anger and emotion, followed by them scheming to ruin his attempt to win the contest. I felt like I had introduced a viable NPC that I could bring back again if I needed that emotion.

The grappling competition was I think the highlight for the players. Everyone tried it, and almost everyone tried some unorthodox thing, and the penalty for losing a fight not being instant death was mentioned as a selling point. This is something to think on.

I had some individual roleplaying planned for each player. Halma and Ana had theirs outlined here, but Arlarond's raise from the dead also had some, with a DM to player email earlier this week and a mysterious message to go with it. What Dan chooses to share about his character is his business, though, so I will not go into that here. Colin's character had tougher history to work with, but when I do part two later you will see what I *tried* to do.

I do not want to portray Lord Markelhay as an opportunistic greedy politician in these writeups, but it is coming across that way. He is using the Heroes, I think everyone knows that, but his motivations are noble, at least for now.

Next time, the party chooses, and a 100% improvised scene that stole the session...

Jay