4/18 Actual Play, and rumination on group size

Rumination is where cows rechew their food right? So that word seems appropriate since I feel like this subject has been talked to death in our group lately, in person, through email, and posted publicly on our group. I'll get to that later.

We had a few cancellations last week, some last minute, and so it wasn't until about 30 or 40 minutes after the appointed start time that dan, colin, chelsea and I decided to scrap the planned continuation of our main campaign and run a one shot. Colin volunteered to run a module and the three of us sat down to put together some last minute characters together.

Another ringing endorsement for DDI follows. Colin found a module, and we started making characters using the character builder. Jesse showed up a bit later, and with colin printing out the module and the four of us making and printing our characters, we were ready to play in about an hour. We played 9th level for an 8th level module since we were one short. I can't imagine making 4 3.5 characters even with heroforge in that amount of time. I can't imagine making 4e characters without the character builder in that amount of time. It was very nice.

We ended up with a Goliath Barbarian, Half-Orc Ranger (2 weapon), Dwarven Warlord, and Dwarven Warden. We began in the Warwood. I immediately thought of a party of warforged, a warlock, warden, and warlord, all adventuring in the warwood (incedentally, that party is not only viable, but sounds kind of awesome.)

Since it was a one shot I don't really feel the obligation to set down the plot and structure of the battles for posterity. I will still give some thoughts on the session however. Firstly, our party was very spiffy. Secondly the adventure was a learning experience for me (and somewhat for others, it seems). Thirdly, a party of four adventurers is about twice as fun as a party of eight, proving the inverse relationship between the two (to a point. I do not think that a party of 1 is 8 times more fun than a party of 8, so the statement is only valid for groups >3 or so).

Chelsea played the Goliath Barbarian. The barbarian was kind of the star of the show. She wielded a pick (irony for a goliath there), and chose the rageblood path. Our session was only long enough for 2 combat encounters, which is kind of sad for a 9th level barbarian, and I am pretty sure she never used the rage strike. She was a great striker, and her in-your-face presence kind of created a defendery aura, too. The disappointing thing was that I never really got to see what a goliath was like out of combat. . .how would she be roleplayed, what were her skills like, what was her racial power, things like that.

Jesse ran a Half Orc Ranger. He dual wielded bastard swords, which is awesome, and had the highest damage output. Chelsea had some awesome moments, but Jesse had chosen his powers wisely and was able to wring quite a bit out of what he had. He was less *flashy* though. While the barbarian was charging across the battlefield, as far as 10 squares in one instance, Jesse was quietly doing 30 points of damage consistently.

Dan played our leader, the Dwarven Warlord. Dan had played a female dwarf warlord before, as a DMPC, but this one seemed much better at her leadery role. Not only did his healing keep Jesse alive, but he gave a few free attacks to Chelsea, and during the second fight his White Raven Onslaught is probably what saved us from cold zombie death. From the beginning I always like warlords a hair better than clerics, and this is just more confirmation for me. Clerics may be better at a lot of things, but warlords are certainly the anti-controller of the battlefield. Anti-controller as in, move allies and subtract status effects as opposed to move enemies and add status effects.

I played the Dwarven Warden. I have kind of been itching to play one since I first flipped through PHB2. Yes, it is another defender. I appear to be stuck in a rut. I built him with the reach weapon cheese that a Warden encourages. The Verdant Lord Paragon Path outlines how I feel. Become a tree. Control the battlefield. With a greatspear and turned into a tree, the Warden can have reach 3, which is a 7x7 piece of the battlefield, or 48 squares. A regular player controls 8 squares.

This isn't what I liked most, though. I didn't really take advantage of my reach much. I liked his defender/controller feel. Wardens mark all adjacent allies as a free action once per round. I chose the power that is reach 2 and pulls one. With that power, you can pull an enemy one, mark him (and any others next to you) and shift back. Eventually, during the first fight I found I had managed to pull a group of enemies away from the pack after a few rounds of this. I feel like an Elf Warden would be very superior at this, able to shift no matter what. While the Warden's mark is surely not as cool as the Fighters, since it uses your immediate action and can therefore only be done once a round, it is a basic attack rather than an opportunity attack, so you can make it at reach.

Enough about the warden. The session cast us as a group of mercenaries traveling through the Warwood. We see a procession in the distance, traveling the opposite direction, and we discern that it is a funeral procession. As we step to the side to allow it to pass, bandits attack and we leap to the defensive. The first fight was us vs 8 4th level human bandity types and 2 6th level casters. We were 9th level. Surprisingly the fight was not a steamroll. Sure, after a few rounds Jesse and I figured we could only miss on a 2 or less, but the fight was dynamic, and rather than having a couple of equal level brutes to lock us down, or a nest of minions, they split the difference. It worked. There were enough that we could not easily get away without provoking (and they still hit hard, when they hit), but they weren't minions and dead at the drop of a hat.

We prevailed and fast forwarded through the roleplay (the gist: we agree to help the creepy procession retrieve their coffin, which was stolen during the fight) and set up for the second encounter. This encounter started with us on one side of a frozen river, and our enemies on the other. Again, we faced lower level opponents, 5 4th level and 4+ 6th level. I will explain the plus in a moment. Chelsea bounded across the ice but failed her acrobatics check to not fall over, and ended up prone in the middle of the river. So did Dan. So did I. Jesse did not run, so he did not fall. We started engaging the enemy as they moved to the river to fight us, and that is when the terrain feature became something more than just difficult terrain. Every time someone was wounded (per the module) an icy zombie burst through the ice next to them and began attacking the nearest target at random. These zombies were tougher than the mooks we were fighting, and Colin quickly had to rein in the rampant zombie creation and we ended up with 5 or 6 total. Dan made it to the other side and hit with his White Raven Onslaught, enabling us to slide our allies across the ice. This one was closer, with Jesse out of surges by the end and Dan out of healing, but loads of fun. With enemies 3-5 levels lower than the party. Who knew.

I guess that is the learning experience part. I tried to make tough encounters with higher level enemies, and now I feel like while those have their place, throwing in tough encounters with lower level enemies, or easier encounters, can still be a lot of fun. I need to revise my thinking.

My last comments will be on group size. A lot of talk has been generated on this subject over the past 2 or 3 weeks. We currently have 10 semi-regular players, which is quite a lot. It is more work and less fun for everyone, but we are playing a game with friends, how do you decide who stays and who goes in an equitable manner?

The first knee jerk proposal was a split into 2 groups. This appears reasonable on the surface, 5 players each is ideal. That was our number last week. What about those kinds of situations? If we had been split up, neither group would have been able to play. With some members of the group not confirming their attendance until the day of the game (if at all) it would be nearly impossible to plan to meet together if the same happened. And it does not solve the problem of who decides. Do we split by age? Experience? Region? Draw lots?

While this option was never dropped *officially*, it has not seen much discussion lately. Discussion that I have had lately has focused on a couple things:
1 - Helping the DM. We have had someone helping unofficially with initiatives, but expanding this into a more helpful position will make things easier on him. I suggested tracking conditions as well, and looking up rules disputes. This has not been agreed upon.
2 - Paying attention. This is a horrible feedback loop that must be stopped. The longer combats get, the less inclined folks are to pay attention, and the longer the combat gets. It is self causing, and it's solution is . . .to pay attention? If the DM (or his assistant, see #1) has to explain to every player individually, when it is their turn, that the ogre mini is in fact a centaur, and that the red marks are his flaming arrows, it takes up a huge chunk of time. How do you encourage paying attention? One good suggestion has been to give a time limit. If you aren't ready to go when your initiative count comes up, you delay until you are ready. Enforce this in an impartial manner, such as with a tiny hourglass, and I think feelings are more likely to be spared.
3 - Respect. This was my contribution. I feel there are a lot of reasons that having less respect slows the game down.
-Realize that the DM likely spent upwards of an hour or two preparing for this session, and will not get to play his character. Show some respect for the thought he has put into it.
-Respect that we all have lives, families, other hobbies, and we chose to get together to play D&D. For most of us this *is* our social interaction for the week.
-Respect each other and our time by not wasting it by interrupting or ignoring, but try to pay a little attention to what is going on.
-Understand that most of us can take time, as little as 30 seconds during the week, to let the DM know whether to plan on us attending. We are all in this together, and the better prepared the DM is, the more fun we will have.

These are not . . . public suggestions, these are things I have thought about and told a couple folks, but things that I think any gaming group with our problem can use. It is easy to take the excuse I took above, that we are friends getting together to play a game, what is the big deal, but I think that shows a general lack of consideration for the people who have spent time to make this game fun, and if what you desire is a group of friends getting together to play a game with no pressure or strings attached, maybe this game is not for you. That is what makes gaming fun, is that there is pressure, there is group effort, and the more we work together and respect each other, the more fun we can have.

This highlights something that I will begin explaining kind of backwards. My mother in law does not understand D&D. She thinks it is kind of silly that we all get together and play, every week, and nobody ever wins. To her, game=win. She is a non-gamer. Some people are gamers, some are non-gamers. If you do not grasp some of these things about being a considerate member of a gaming group, and you feel like perhaps this is all a little serious for just a game, perhaps you are a non-gamer. This is not a bad thing. I am a non-athlete and I have led a full life. You can still game, but you might have to take into consideration some things you think are ridiculous, like RSVPing every week for a casual get together. Par for the course.

That got a little ranty. Please don't be offended.

Jay

Actual Play 3/28: The Guild of Thieves, Again.

Colin ran this session, and had a large party to deal with. All of the prospectives and maybes showed up for one grand session, and plan on returning. We could have a 10 people gaming group, 9 PC's and 1 DM. It should be interesting.

Our first session at 6th level. Those in attendance:
Colin, DM.
Jay, Therryk the Dragonborn Paladin/Barbarian of Erathis.
Josh, Wry Wit the Drow Sorcerer and former jester of the Dwarven court in Hammerfast.
Jesse, Halma the Human Rogue, now back from mysterious business.
Jessica, Sanbrielle the Halfling Warlord
Joel, Nightshine the Shadar Kai Avenger of the Raven Queen, who insists he looks just like a regular human.
Chris, Zamir the Genasi Stormsoul Swordmage. Now the best defender we have.
Chelsea, Ana the Half Elven Cleric of Bahamut and daughter of Lord Markelhay
Lucan will fade away for awhile, and Arlarond's player, Dan, was absent this week.

We had brief introductions first, since this is the first session (since the inaugural one) with such a large number of PC's. Colin jumped right in...

Following the defeat of the Red Champion by the Heroes of Fallcrest, they were rebranded the Heroes of the Nentir Vale. This is due in a large part to the sheer impact of their victory. Aside from their earlier accomplishments, the Heroes had just averted war between the Humans (and their allies) and the Eladrin (and their allies?). They had turned the tide of the war with the Legion of the Chimera, and sent them packing. Their efforts on the behalf of the Eladrin in Southember changed them from the defenders of just one city, to the defenders of the entire region. Of course, the Heroes have yet to voyage too far from home, and have not visited any of the other settlements in the Vale. They may dispute this title...

Their triumphant return to Fallcrest was followed by a euphoric fortnight of winding down and enjoying the fruits of their labors. Not all of the party basked in the adoration of their charges, with Arlarond sequestering himself in his Master's tower, and Lucan rejoining his work with the guard. They were currently engaged in building up the defenses of Fallcrest.

In the midst of this, Halma returned and began seeking out his friends. He was fairly certain that he could find Ana in her home at the Moonstone Keep, and started there. Ana was happy to see him, and he was filled in on the events of the past few weeks. She introduced him to Zamir, who had remained with the party and was spending some time at the Keep, and the three of them started making rounds to gather the rest of the party together. Therryk was performing some rites in the Temple to Erathis, and Sanbrielle and her parents were there worshipping (and a little tipsy). The priest of Bahamut was happy to see Ana at the shrine, as she had not been exactly devout, lately. He extracted a promise from her to return the next day and perform some of her priestly duties that she had been neglecting. Therryk volunteered to find Lucan and Nightshine, as they had been spending some time together since their arrival in Fallcrest.

We all met in the Lucky Gnome Taphouse, Halma's favorite dive. The whole group of us began catching up and discussing our next moves, when we were interrupted by a figure in a cloak. When he pulled his hood back, we were surprised to see a drow, walking unmolested through Fallcrest. He asked us if we knew Halma. Uncomfortable silence followed, and Halma finally spoke up and identified himself. The drow reached over his shoulder, throwing back his cloak, and revealed a knife in his back. He pulled it dramatically forth, and tossed it at Halma. "A gift from Sogol". Of course, we as a party were immediately on alert, even after Halma quickly discovered it was a trick dagger, with a collapsing blade. After that icebreaker, the drow introduced himself as Wry Wit, Drow raised by Dwarves and prized feather in Sogol's cap. He was sent to deliver this 'message', and to offer his services. We were immediately suspect of this offer. Several tense minutes later, the mood was darkened even further when Halma collapsed into the table.

He fought off the poison in his system and tossed the dart that had pierced his neck onto the table. Zamir caught sight of a shadowy figure darting from the Tavern, and we launched into action. Zamir pointed and shouted, and we started towards the door. The small crowd that had gathered to watch the fight between us and Wry Wit were now in our way and slowing our way to the real fight. While some pushed through the crowd, being slowed by the close quarters, Therryk shoved his way through, heedless of the people in his way. Ana shouted for their assistance and asked them to stand aside, and Sanbrielle skirted through their legs.
We rushed from the door to try and stop him (or her) from getting away, but our rush was in vain. All of us got out in our own ways, only to have the shadowy figure disappear before our eyes. Our disappointment in our inability to catch him was quickly forgotten when he reappeared and began stabbing us with his poisoned short sword. Usually, our large numbers and two defenders in such small spaces would have made this fight a cakewalk, but this opponent did not follow our rules. He teleported past the real melee threats and attacked our tender flank. Nightshine kept his Avenger's mark up and was able to follow him no matter where he went, but not before he managed to poison a handful of the party.
Even with him surrounded he popped out of the flank and over to stab some other people. Still, we had him bloodied, and victory was relatively assured, since none of us were to terribly hurt. Then he disappeared. . .and did not reappear to stab us.

One good development was a little trust developed with Wry. During the fight he did not hesitate to come to our aid, and had plenty of opportunity to stab (or blast) us in the back. We warily accepted him into our ranks.

The attack had us shaken though, and we began to bend our efforts to uncovering this possible plot against us. Halma was able to arrange a meeting with the Thieves Guild for the following morning, and retired for the evening.

We met with Ervan Lances, much to our chagrin. Ervan has a history with Halma, and more recently had some dealings with us. Although the arrangement ended satisfactorily for all parties concerned, we still had reservations about meeting with him. Reservations founded in reality, we found out.

Ervan Lances was polite and cordial. He did not know anything about our attacker, but had heard of our fracas the night before. When we accused him of being behind it, he let slip that one of his own had been injured, but not in Fallcrest. He proposed a deal. He would bend his considerable resources to finding information about our mystery man, and we would do a favor for him. The injured man was one of his couriers, a man named Devon. He had disappeared on his regular route between the Harkenwood and the Fiveleague House. All he needed us to do was travel his route and see if we could discover what happened to him.

Again, we were loathe to get in bed with organized crime, but could see little other option to get what we needed. So, the Heroes of Fallcrest again went to work for the Thieves Guild. Our plan was to travel East to the town of Harkenwood, and ask after his wife, Sandra. She might have more detailed information about his last known whereabouts and would direct us on the next leg of our journey, most likely to the Fiveleague house.

We left immediately. Therryk insisted on taking their wagon (secretly fearing that no horse could long bear his weight), and the party mounted up and started East.

One uneventful day of travel later, we set up camp with a few miles to go before we reached Harkenwood. We stayed within sight of the road, and divided into watches for the night. Sometime during second watch we were attacked.

Therryk and Wry were on watch. Wry was busy creating a shadowplay on the wall of Halma's tent, and Therryk must have been at least a little distracted by it, since with no warning at all 3 large wolves and a handful of their beastial looking allies padded silently out of the woods and charged before we could raise an alarm:
Wry is not built for hand to hand confrontations, but the wolves and shifters may have been distracted by the shadow play as well, since he did not die in the initial attack. They also singled out Halma, in his tent, and Nightshine who was sleeping under the stars.

We could have died, with the surprise attack going the way it did. The wolves were able to knock us down if they connected with a hit, and the shifters were able to follow us if we tried to shift away. Fortunately, the Gods (or Spirits or what have you) were generous and we were able to avoid a lot of the attacks on us. Our first fight with some of our new allies with a large force allowed us to see what they were capable of. Wry pinballed a bolt of psychic energy that hit every enemy, and careened towards the party before fizzling out.
However, be it due to our greater numbers, or due to our recent training, the fight was over quickly. Had we been awake when it started and able to better focus fire, it would not have presented much of a challenge at all. We finished there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colin was in for the opposite surprise this week, than Jesse had last week. Jesse anticipated as many as 9 players, while Colin prepared for less than 7 players. So he was stuck trying to ramp up his encounter on the fly, and we still kind of steamrolled it.

I did mean encounter, not encounters. The first encounter was an on the fly invention by Colin. He saw the need for an encounter there, and found an appropriate challenge using the Compendium, and ran it with his laptop. It worked really well. In fact, with some world building notes and a quick wit, I imagine creating on the fly encounters like this are perfectly doable. If you wanted the sandbox to end all sandboxes, you could kinda do it this way.

I think I will stick with thoroughly planned setpiece encounters mixed in with semi-random encounters that I have thought out ahead of time.

The second encounter was too easy, I think we just overwhelmed them. Partly due to some of us using dailies right off the bat, and partly due to Colin rolling really, really badly. He is pretty streaky, rolling 20's and 1's, and the video of that old dude that sells precision dice came up. I like that old guy, but I would have to do some convincing to get the wife to be cool with paying that much for dice....

After the session we had a conversation about our group size. Seven PC's is a lot, but not a crazy number of people. It was still enough of an increase that combat was noticeably slower. I'm not sure if anything was decided, but we talked about giving the DM at least a day's notice, so he had some concrete numbers to plan for. We talked about paying better attention to what is happening so you don't require a recap on your turn. Once in awhile this is not an issue, but if everyone has to be told what is going on at the beginning of every turn, it seriously subtracts from the fun of everyone else at the table.

Sadly, I won't be able to comment on the short term effect of these discussions, as I will be out for the next two weeks. I do not know if anyone will be up to posting a short synopsis for me to copy and paste here, and I am not sure how the game will progress, but I will endeavour to keep this site updated with any information I have.

In an effort to at least keep up with 1 post/week, I will have to sit down and do some thinking about what to post. I am not sure that I have the most stunning insights into gaming, so the subject of these posts could be about. . .anything, I guess. Gaming related.

Jay

Why I am addicted to DDI after only 2 days

I am so against the DDI. Just the idea of it makes me upset. For a one year subscription they charge $60. I could by two gaming books for that price. I don't like the idea of renting information. Like the encyclopedia salesman coming to your door and offering you a beautiful set of leather bound encyclopedias, they are $20 a month. Buy? No, you can't buy these encyclopedias. They are for lease only.

The whole sales model is rotten to me. But, I came into some money that I didn't think I deserved, but that I couldn't turn down, so I bought 3 month's worth. $20. Thinking that even if I didn't like it, I could save all the pdf's and keep the character builder. Those are worth $20. Maybe.

So, yesterday, I did not even go beyond the character builder. I built Therryk. I built a Warden, just in case. I built a 30th level, just for fun. It was. . .nice. I wasn't sold, though. Not until today.

I came home from school intending to mess around with Gimp some, I have a couple encounters for my eventual turn that might require me to design a map in advance, and I'd like to try Gimp for that, rather than graph paper and a pencil, when I should be paying attention in Physics. I wanted to finish the creatures in the encounter, first, and thought I would try the encounter builder.

Not impressed, not at all. Well, I was getting impressed slowly as I went along. Ooh, chose the creature and it adds the XP, nice. Wow, I can sort by role, or keyword, handy. But, when I got to the end, and it did not give me the option to print the statblocks, I was. . .disappointed. A totally missed opportunity. How handy to have the whole thing in one package.

I found the statblocks I wanted in the Rules Compendium, however, and was impressed even more by the functionality of that tool. Allowing you to sort even more than the encounter creator, and allowing you to page through the whole statblocks when your results popped up meant that I had a whole host of options available again.

Of course, those two tools alone are not really worth the price. It is the fact that they include every published adventure, supplement, splatbook, and pdf that makes it work. Monsters from RPGA adventures and the Scales of War and any other regularly released adventure are included, and those include leveled versions of some Monster Manual creeps. I never even got to Gimp. I ended up finishing up and printing out 6 encounters this afternoon, where before they were nebulous ideas, now I have creatures to go with them, calculated to the appropriate challenge rating from the Encounter Builder (I also typed up short little tactics blocs, since I sometimes get nervous and fudge these. Or copypasta from a Dragon magazine article).

So, yeah, for DMing these tools are *huge* time savers, and tremendous for adding new and different foes for your party. I hate that Wizards has hooked me like this, but at the same time, they delivered on a pretty good product. If they could only get the interface smoothed out (my suggestion would be merging the encounter builder into the Compendium, it is easier to navigate, and you could print out the stat blocks all at once) , but that is a nitpick. I am duped. I am sold. I am ashamed...

Jay

Jesse's Homemade Minibosses

Jesse actually mailed these to me 3 days ago, I am just now getting to posting them. First the Red Champion:

The Chunn-Aragot, Blessed Soldier of Gruumsh
Level 8 Solo

Initiative: 9 Exp: 1750
HP: 368; Bloodied: 184
AC: 24 Fortitude: 23 Reflex: 22 Will: 20
Attack bonus vs. AC: +15
Attack bonus vs. other defenses: +13
Damage Low Medium High
At-will 1d8+5 2d6+5 2d8+5
Limited 3d8+5 3d10+5 4d8+5

Action points: 2
Str: 20 (+9) Dex: 17 (+7) Wis: 17 (+7)
Con: 20 (+9) Int: 17 (+7) Cha: 17 (+7)

Gruumsh's blessing (aura 5)
When opponents in the aura score a critical hit they suffer 1d8+5 raidant damage.

Blessed Axe of Gruumsh (Standard, at will)
+15 vs. AC, 1d10+11 damage (crit 21+2d12)

Divine Vengeance (Standard, at will)
+13 vs. Will. 1d8+5 radiant damage and the target is stunned until the end of your next turn on a hit. Whenever you score a critical with any other power your next use of this power on the same target is a minor action.

Battlefury (standard, recharge 5 6)
Make two basic attacks.

Roar of the Conqueror (Standard, Encounter)
+13 vs. Will. Close Burst 3. 4d8+5 damage on a hit and the target is weakened (save ends). Allies within the area gain 25 temp HP.

Divine Storm (Standard, Encounter)
Make a basic attack against every opponent within a close burst 2, these attacks deal radiant damage. Targets hit are dazed (save ends).

Gruumsh's Favor (minor, recharge 5 6)
Close Burst 3, you or an ally within the burst can take an extra standard action. When bloodied recharge becomes 4 5 6.

Blood-Frenzy (aura 5, when bloodied)
All creatures within the aura score a critical hit on a roll of a 19 or 20.

Warrior's Surge (Standard, Usable only when Bloodied)
Basic attack, regain 92 hit points

Vicious Battleaxe +2 (Two Handed)
Blood Red Scale Mail

Next, the two allies:

Grobb, Major Domino of the Goblins
Level 7 Elite Lurker

Initiative: 11 Exp: 600
HP: 128; Bloodied: 64
AC: 23 Fortitude: 21 Reflex: 22 Will: 19
Attack bonus vs. AC: +12
Attack bonus vs. other defenses: +10
Damage Low Medium High
At-will 1d8+5 2d6+5 2d8+5
Limited 3d8+5 3d10+5 4d8+5

Action points: 1
Str: 16 (+6) Dex: 19 (+7) Wis: 16 (+6)
Con: 16 (+6) Int: 19 (+7) Cha: 16 (+6)

Acrobatics +12
Stealth +12

Blade Twisting:
Targets attacked with combat advantage are dazed until the start of your next turn.

Sneak Attack:
+3d6 damage

Melee Basic (Standard)
+12 vs. AC 1d6+7

Feint (Standard, at will)
+10 vs. Will, 1d6 damage and you gain combat advantage against the target until the end of your next turn.

Vanish (Encounter, Minor)
You become invisible until the end of your next turn or you attack.

Blade of the Assassin (Minor, Encounter)
Your next attack deals an added 4d6 poison damage and the target is stunned (save ends).

Riposte (encounter, immediate reaction to an opponent missing with a melee attack, recharge 6)
Make an attack against the opponent with combat advantage.

Call in the Favor (immediate reaction to an opponent hitting with a melee attack, encounter)
Switch positions with an ally within 2 squares, that ally takes the hit instead.

Goblin Tactics: IR to being missed, shift 1

Karkak, Timat's Focus. Leader of the children of 5.
Level 7 Elite Artillery

Initiative: 6 Exp: 600
HP: 128; Bloodied: 64
AC: 22 Fortitude: 19 Reflex: 21 Will: 22
Attack bonus vs. AC: +14
Attack bonus vs. other defenses: +12
Damage Low Medium High
At-will 1d8+5 2d6+5 2d8+5
Limited 3d8+5 3d10+5 4d8+5

Action points: 1
Str: 16 (+6) Dex: 16 (+6) Wis: 19 (+7)
Con: 16 (+6) Int: 16 (+6) Cha: 19 (+7)

Draconic Shift (free, at the start of each turn)
Your are immune to a random type of energy and your other draconic powers reflect this draconic blessing.
1 - Blue: Lightning Stun/Daze
2 - White: Cold Immobilize/Slow
3 - Black: Acid -4 to all Def/-2 to Reflex
4 - Green: Poison Weakened/-2 to Attacks
5 - Red: Fire Blinded and Ongoing 5/Ongoing 5
6 - Choose

Claw (Standard, At will, Melee Basic)
+14 vs. AC. 1d8+5 damage, target suffers minor draconic effect until end of turn on a critical.

Dragongout (Standard, At will, Ranged Basic)
Ranged 10, +12 vs. Reflex, 2d6+7 and minor draconic effect until end of next turn.

Dragonblast (Standard, At will, Recharge 6)
Close Blast 3, +12 vs. Reflex, 3d8+7 and major draconic effect until end of next turn.

Wings of the Goddess (Standard, Recharge 5 6)
+12 vs. Reflex. 2d6+7 in close burst 1 and shift 5 squares (can fly until end of next turn), then make a dragongout attack. Opponents hit by either suffer minor effect until end of next turn, hit by both suffer major.

Breath of the Goddess (Standard Encounter)
Close Blast 5, +12 vs reflex 4d8+7. Opponents hit suffer major effect (save ends) with aftereffect of minor (save ends). Missed suffer minor and half damage.

Dragonskin (Minor encounter)
Gain resist 5 against all attacks until the start of your next turn, any opponent who strikes you with a melee attack also takes 3d10+5 damage and suffers your minor draconic effect (save ends).

Dragon Queen's Favor (free, when spending an action point)
Choose one

And lastly, the spider minions:

Lothleb's Brood

Initiative: 4 Exp: 50
HP: 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.
AC: 19 Fortitude: 18 Reflex: 17 Will: 17
Attack bonus vs. AC: +10
Attack bonus vs. other defenses: +8
Damage: 5
Action points: 0
Str: 18 (+6) Dex: 15 (+4) Wis: 15 (+4)
Con: 18 (+6) Int: 15 (+4) Cha: 15 (+4)

Poison Bite: +8 vs. Fort
Hit: Ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends all)
targets taking ongoing 5 poison are immobilized.
Targets immobilized + ongoing are dazed.
Targets immobilized +dazed +ongoing are stunned.

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Unfortunately we never tangled with the spiders. And as mentioned in the writeup, Jesse ended up nerfing the two elites, since he thought we might have more players.

My thoughts on the bosses? They were tough. They were *supposed* to be tough. The kobold has the potential to really screw with you, if he were dropped into an encounter where he had soldiers blocking for him or some other mechanism for him to keep bombarding the party. We had Joel to thank for saving us from that. The goblin really was tough, and the only thing that saved us there was the fact that he died. If he had Elite HP we would have been toast.

And the Red Champion was hard, but were she *solo* instead of solo with two allies, I don't think we would have had quite the problem. Honestly, her greatest threat was serving as a huge block of HP to soak up our hits while her weaker teammates put the hurt on us. Grummush's favor had the potential to eat us up once she bloodied, since an extra action would mean 4 attacks from her. Her to hit bonus is high enough that with flanking she is almost guaranteed to hit any less armored member of our party. So, given all that, we did pretty well.

Jay

Actual Play 3/7 & 3/21: Heroes of Fallcrest no longer, Heroes of the Vale we have become!

Last session we played had no combat encounters. I did not take many notes.

We went to the place where the lizardfolk told us we could meet our contact with the Orcish Shamans. We were able to meet with a haughty Orcish Shaman who felt that the Prophesies were being misread and misused, and thought that the Red Champion was a fraud. He was trying to get the Prophesies so that he could disprove many of the signs that she had used to rally this Legion to begin with.

We attempted to give him a translated copy, but he wanted the real thing. We were, after a lot of talking, able to get an agreement hammered out. He would demand that the Champion prove herself by seeking a sign in a certain place at a certain time. We would be there, and kill her without having to hack through her entire army. We would then give the book to the traitor shaman and he would lead his people out of here. He did warn us that once he had the book he would not hesitate to tell his people that it was us that slew their champion.

The spot we chose was on the edge of the Harken forest. Lucan had spent some time patrolling the wood with his elven brethren, and took part in a battle against a large and vicious spider. He remembered the location of her lair, and suggested that we could ambush her there.

That was the condensed version of our roleplaying only session. The next week we played a Call of Cthulhu game, and yesterday we picked up our main campaign where we left off.

The party consisted of:
Lucan, Elven Fighter and sometime conscience of the party; played by Colin.
Ana, Half Elven Cleric of Bahamut and MVP of the coming battle; played by Colin in Chelsea's absence.
Nightshine, Shadar Kai Avenger of the Raven Queen, quiet, occasionally invisible, and deadly; played by Joel
Arlarond, Human Wizard, calm center of knowledge and fire; played by Dan
Therryk, Dragonborn Paladin of Erathis, clueless brute with a rage problem; played by Jay
Sanbrielle, Halfling Warlord, plucky and loud. Halfling Paragon? played by Jes

Immediately after the Orcish Shaman left the grove where we met, Nightshine creeped in. He had been a slave owned by the Legion until a recent escape, and had overheard our entire conversation with the orc. He offered his services, as he was naturally eager to punish his former masters. After a sparring match with Therryk, he was accepted into the group, and we began the quick trip three days to the edge of the Fens.
This is the spider's cave. The cave opening is the black bar on the right. The black region to the left of that is a dark pit that we can't see the bottom of. The blue parts are webs that are attached to the floor and sloping upwards and attaching to the wall about 30 feet up. The red portions are sticky webs on the floor of the cave. The difficult to see light blue-type color are solid husks of web. The giant spider was slain 6 or 7 years ago, so the egg sacks we see inside the solid parts are old and not a danger. Most have been slit open already. The top right and bottom left of the map are small. . .cavelets only reachable by the ramp of web. The cave was once a generic limestone cavern, but had been carved and eaten into it's current shape. Tiny fissures cover the walls.

Many plans were discussed. Should we hide? Where would we hide? Should we try and fool her with a sign of our own? How? And if we succeeded, then what? Arlarond had a ritual he had picked off of the body of one of the casters from the Legion that we had killed. The ritual allows greater ease of movement across mundane and magical webs. He has his familiar fly outside the entrance to the cave and keep an eye out for 3 figures approaching, an orc, a kobold, and a goblin. We had learned as much from the shaman. The Legion of the Chimera, led by 3 leaders of the 3 major races that comprise it. . .pretty clever.
This was our eventual plan. Our two minons hid in the thick webs. Arlarond and Ana concealed themselves on the ramp. Therryk, Lucan, and Sanbrielle crawled under the end of the 'ramp' and covered themselves in web to be concealed. Nightshine did the same thing, but in a different spot. A last minute decsion regarding the light situation led to us incorporating some element of deception. Arlarond's familiar returned. It had spotted an orc and a kobold approaching. Arlarond performed the webby ritual on us and we all got in our places. Arlarond then conjured a floating holy symbol of Gruumsh, and a light spell inside it to make it glow. . .and light the center of the cave.

The orc and kobold entered. They walked towards the symbol, paused, and then approached it. She swiped her axe through it a couple of times. Nightshine may have seen something, but knew that warning us would ruin any surprise we had.

After a long pause, Arlarond acted. He tried to sneak forwards to get within spell bombing range of the holy symbol. Almost immediately he was spotted by the kobold. The orc charged. Initiative was rolled. The battle was on.
This initiative board is after a couple rounds. Yes I am aware that it should probably be Grobb, Majordomo of Goblins. We liked the typo. Knock one down, they all go down...

The fight immediately went against us. The Red Champion brougt Arlarond into bloodied territory on her first attack. Sanbrielle gets him healed, Lucan and Therryk begin the process of freeing themselves from the webs they were hiding in. Grobb makes his presence known by appearing in a flanking position with the orc. Karka lobs some fire at the party, but is quickly locked down when Nightshine gets in his face.

The Red Champion hits Lucan twice. Both are criticals. Lucan is immediately felled, and lies bleeding on the ground. Sanbrielle uses her second and final Inspiring Word to get him back in the fight. Ana summons what is most likely the largest contributor to us winning the fight, Consecrated Ground. A 3x3 area of holy ground that she can move each turn, it has the effect of damaging each enemy that begins it's turn in it, and healing any bloodied PC's that start their turn in it. Since most of us were bloodied most of the time, we reaped a huge healing benefit from it. 12 HP each time was more than a healing surge (for all of us, I'm pretty sure).
Arlarond also uses his shroud of flame, which is super effective against Jesse since he always forgets to save. Ongoing 5 fire plys 1d6 or so for Consecrated Ground. . .and then Lucan activates his stance. Any enemy that begins it's turn next to him takes 1[w] damage. This added up to a huge amount of damage over the many rounds this fight lasted.

At the same time this was happening, Nightshine was taking on Karka by himself. Karka hit him with a poison attack, which allowed him to fly (shift) away and onto the web platform over the chasm. Nightshine had several tricks up his sleeve, however, and was able to chase him up there and teleport him over the edge and into the abyss. His fall was broken by some webs a few feet down, and we were introduced to the last element of this fight. Spiders.

Lotheb's Brood were medium spider minions who singlemindedly went after anything that disturbed the web. Karka was swarmed immediately, and Nightshade left the lip of the chasm to help us with the other two.

The fight was not really going well. Sanbrielle ran out of healing, and the status effects started to pile up. Grobb (the Domino) was a rogue and maintained his flank, tearing us apart. A difference was made when Therryk managed to get a flank with Lucan on Grobb, and used an action point to hit twice. The second hit he avoided by using an ability to swap places with the Red Champion, but this meant he would start his turn in the land of ongoing damage, and it brought him down.

We were feeling good. One enemy left. She was tough, but we were tougher. After all of that mess she was just into bloodied territory. We pressed our advantage. We were surprised to see Karka return. He had been spending each round rerolling for his abilities to recharge, and the one that allowed him to fly finally did. He soared from the darkness and immediately began to bombard us with elemental attacks, all of which carried some kind of status effect. The result was a rebound for the bad guys. The Red Champion was pushed into the webs, but used the opportunity to regroup with Karka.
This was bad news overall, but good news for Arlarond. He had the chance to hit them both with an area attack and summoned a huge cloud of icy pain over the two of them. He positioned it so that for the short time it was there, we could attack them through it's border.
This was the final stretch. Despite turning his scales white to afford him some protection against the cold damage, Karka was doomed and went down. The Red Champion coulcn't escape the Consecrated Ground, and each time she cut one of us down we popped up again on our next turn. It took some more time, but we whittled her mountain of hit points down eventually to zero.
We gathered the three bodies together to search them, and the only thing of value was the +2 Vicious Battleaxe that had hit Lucan with criticals at least three times. Probably more. And the book. Ana cast Gentle Repose on the Red Champion's body, and we loaded her on a floating disc for the journey back to Southember.

The Eladrin were understandable excited about this news, and they hoisted her body up on a pike to carry at the head of their army. Within hours the Eladrin had left to begin routing the orcs and clearing the fens of their foul presence. We had the Eladrin scholars perform their copying ritual on the book, and arranged (via animal messenger) for another meeting with the Shaman in the same grove we had met in previously.

He was still pompous, and we still did not relish dealing with him. On top of that, when he had his book he marched straight to his waiting troops and told them what he said he would. That we were the jerks who had killed their Red Champion.

A lengthy chase through the Fens was finally ended when we were able to lose the Warg riders in a difficult section of the terrain. We met up with Kerlos leading the Eladrin army shortly after, and told him where he could find 200 or so disorganized orcs begging to be slaughtered.

The next day was a feast day in Southember. Kerlos was pleased with us, and saw to it that our role in the events was made known to the people during the feast. We began this endeavour with the goal of preventing all out war between Fallcrest and Southember, and it looked as if, for now at least, we had achieved it.
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There was some more chatting after that, in and out of character, determining what we would be bringing to the next leg of our campaign.

We have this grain of an idea, to turn out Party into a much larger organization. With the release of the PHB2, several of us are/were itching to try out some of the new classes. Add to that our sometimes peculiar party makeup (3 defenders and no striker, really?) and you have a great opportunity to start something different. We are going to try a different definition of party. Folks can have more than one PC, we just play one at a time. We would be able to try new things without doing one shots, or breaking continuity.

So far it looks like Dan might put Arlarond on the shelf for a bit and bring in a Gnomish Bard. Jesse and Jes were . . .arguing over who could play a Druid. I made a Warden (and my first love, a Kobold Rogue), but I think I'll stick with Therryk for now. He sometimes really underperforms, but I feel like in this last fight he did his share. Plus, with Colin running Lucan may be written out for the time being, and we will need a defender. Not that I feel Therryk is as good a Defender as Lucan (seriously, when Colin first brought him I though 'oh great. . .Elf fighter? Not very optimized...' but I have seen the error of my ways. I would dare anyone to make a more effective Defender than Lucan. He fills his role perfectly) but Therryk does have a defender in him somewhere. . .but it is crowded with all that Leader and Striker that he is carrying around. We will see.

So, this fight was really something. Jesse built 4 creatures using the DMG rules, 1 solo (the Red Champion) and 2 elites (his flunkies). Plus the spider minions. The Red Champion was built at 8th level, and Jesse had tried to plan for who would attend, but with our schitzo group I do not fault him at all for overestimating it's size. He thought we could have as many as 9 PC's, and planned accordingly. Thus, the 2 bodyguards were reduced on the fly from Elites to Regulars. the dice really favored him in the beginning, so I am curious if without that change we would have survivied. I think we might have, but with a PC death. It would have been that bastard Goblin stabbing Colin or I (or Sanbrielle or Nightshine) in the back.

Jesse mentioned emailing me the stuff he put together for me to post. I'll do that as soon as I get the email.

In other news, PHB2 is awesome. . . .

Jay

Actual Play 2/28: Our Own Private Siege

Sambrielle - Halfling Warlord
Therryk - Dragonborn Paladin
Zamir - Genasi Swordmage
Arlarond - Human Wizard
Ana - Half Elf Cleric
Lucan - Elf Fighter

Jesse continued the adventures of the Heroes of Fallcrest as they battled the Legion of the Chimera.

We finished our exploration of the compound we had claimed, and divided up the treasures we plundered from the fallen orcs. Our wagon was damaged in the attack, and we set our two slaves up to fix it. Minions, I meant minions.

We were surprised when a lone demon approached the West gate. A couple of us immediately rushed him. Some of the more prudent party members stayed on or in the structure. The next round another demon appeared. The four of us that rushed up were in a good spot, and feeling pretty tough. Arlarond was on the roof of the building inside the walls and he started throwing spells at them. He kept spending his move action to search around, trying to find out where these demons were coming from, but they were too well hidden

Lucan and Therryk stood side by side and fought the demons, while Sambrielle and Ana stood on the wall and supported. The next round, another demon appeared. And the round after that. Zamir rushed to the gate, and the three defenders stood shoulder to shoulder and blocked the route around the edge of the wall.

The demons stopped coming to us, and started running around the corner to the open wall where our two companions were repairing the wagon. Before we could get there to intervene, one took a mighty swing at Scrag, the goblin, and he went down like a bag of stones. We split into two groups. Not on purpose, it just happened that way. Lucan broke off from the front gate fight and jumped up and over the wall to engage the demons coming through the other gate. Sambrielle joined him. Arlarond turned his focus to these new threats, and the other three of us focused on the last of the initial demons.

Lucan had the attention of the new group of demons, still augmented each round by another one coming from the bushes. Zamir, Ana, and Therryk finished off the last of theirs and turned to help their companions.

Therryk ran around the edge of the wall, trying to make best time to the other fight, and was startled when he noticed a Gnoll in the bushes. His eyes were closed and he was murmuring something. One axe thrown at his face ended his summoning ritual, and the endless flood of demons stopped.

This still left the few that he had already summoned, currently fighting in the entryway of the South gate. Now flanked and outnumbered, it was only a matter of time before they were brought down. Though their variable resistance to our various elemental attacks was annoying, it did not save them in the end.

We were pleased to discover that Scrag had only been faking injury, in the masterful cowardly way that Goblins can, and that the gnoll summoner had a very valuable staff topped with a black diamond. Not magic, but still good news.

Following the fight an Eladrin rode in from the East. We recognized him, he was one of Kerlos' men, one we had fought and defeated in the Moonstone Keep. He was impressed with our work, and told us that if we could but hold onto this ruin for another day, reinforcements from Southember would arrive, and we could go. We agreed, as getting in the good graces of the Eladrin is just as important as getting in good with the legion.

Shortly after he left, we saw two Lizardfolk approaching from the South. The one in the lead was carrying a makeshift white flag, so we let them approach. We had moved the wagon into the broken Southern entrance, so the introductions and discussion took place on the seat of the wagon. These lizardfolk had heard of our attempts to create dissent in the Legion, and were offering some small amount of help. Through some negotiation we learned that not all of the Orcish shamans followed the Red Champion blindly, and would like an opportunity to study the book of Orcish prophesies personally. Unfortunately, the Red Champion was keeping the book on her person, so the Shamans went along with her. . . for now.

The gnolls had been trying to find another copy of the prophesies so that they could give them to the shamans. The goblin raids on Fallcrest were one attempt to get the book, though we knew of no copy there. We agreed that we would help the lizardfolk do this, but in the process Therryk let slip that we were expecting an attack during the night. Arlarond suspected that the silent lizardman in the rear of the wagon might have occasion to use this information to our detriment. We told him as much, and as a good faith gesture he allowed us to keep the possible dissenter with us for now. Our plan was to meet up with him in a grove that he specified with the Eladrin copy of the Prophesies in 24 hours. If we were unable to make it we would need to send word and arrange another meeting place.

When the lizardman left we got to fortifying the Northeastern section of the outpost. With material from the building we were able to build a rude barricade, and we chucked the wheels of the wagon to provide some kind of protection from the south. When we were finished we split up into watches and tried to get some rest. Arlarond set up his Arcane Eyes to watch the bog. Sambrielle and Therryk kept watch for the first part of the night.

Around midnight we were attacked. Flaming arrows started striking around the courtyard. The Heroes were awakened, and the battle started. A group of Orcish archers stood 40 feet away and shot flaming arrows into the battle. They were guarded by two Wargs. More orcs rushed the gate, and a big orc, an obvious leader, quickly got inside the compound.

Sambrielle stood atop the wall with her sword as tall as she was and was rewarded for her courage with a barrage of flaming arrows. Therryk jumped down and charged at the archers in an attempt to draw their fire and was rewarded with just that. Inside, Lucan and Zamir closed with the Orcish leader and began to feel just how much pain he could dish out.

Our ace in the hole, Arlarond on the roof tossing spells around, was just in position when we were betrayed. The lizardman whom we had kept with us so that he would not betray our plans rushed at Arlarond and tried to shove him off of the roof of the three story building. He failed, but Arlarond knew that it was a matter of time before he was knocked down, and tried to leap down and mitigate his damage somewhat. He failed. On top of that, the lizardman pulled his greatbow from his back and started pumping arrows into Zamir.

The orcish brutes hammering at the gates were dispatched easily by Therryk and Sambrielle, but the archers focused their fire and with one volley brought the dragonborn down, and he bled and lay dying. The small halfling was now virtually alone outside the gates, with two wargs as tall as she, and four archers with no other obvious targets. Things were looking grim outside the gates.

Luckily, due to the nature of the gate, Ana was able to arrive and began bringing the wrath of Bahamut down on the orcs. She healed the dying and began to turn the tide of the battle. Glowing with the light of her god, her allies felt even more bolstered when blessed by healing from her patron.

Arlarond, too, took advantage of the gate, and began harassing the archers. He yelled at Scrag to pull the lever in the building, the one that controlled the counterweights and opened the gate. Scrag began to do just that. He yanked the lever back and forth, and what was a grim battle became even more uncertain with the addition of the heavy smashing gate in the midst of it.

Zamir, meanwhile, took advantage of one of Ana's many blessings to yank the lizardman from the roof. A bolt of lightning drew him down and he struck the ground, hard. Robbed of his vantage point and stuck in melee combat, he was forced to fight tooth and claw.

Lucan began maneuvering right away to get the orcish leader smashed by the gate. His trident is most adept and pushing and pulling enemies where he wants, all around the battlefield, and it was inevitable that the orc would end up smashed by the gate.

The wargs were finally silenced, and Therryk and Arlarond went to work shutting down the archers. A blast of ice knocked most of them from their feet, and Therryk's axe with Arlarond's magic began to bring them down.

The real fight was the orcish war leader. Briefly knocked into bloodied, he channeled his orcish blood and healed himself out of it. When he brought one of the Heroes of Fallcrest into bloodied territory, he would savage them even more. In the end it took a combined effort of all the party, with healing running low and powers spent, but he was brought down, smashed by the gate into a pulp. We ended there.

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This session took a bit longer than our usual ones, so once combat ended we were done for the day. Surprisingly, Jesse anticipates that this story arc will be finished up next session. We will see. I feel like from Therryk's perspective this is an enormous problem that will not be solved for months and months . . .but from a storytelling perspective I can see it happening. Colin hopes to run next, and we will be starting up 6th level. 6th level is a nice boost in power for some of us, Leaders of course can now add 2d6 to their healing, My mark improves a bit, feats are earned and Utility powers are gained. Good level, 6th. Of course, in a couple weeks I will be looking at 7th level and thinking how cool it will be to have three encounter powers. I am never content.

Jesse was saying as we wrapped up that this gauntlet of three encounters with no extended rests was done to stretch us. We sometimes rest more than I think is strictly necessary. Hitting that milestone is cool, though, Colin has a power gem, so he can bring back his Rain of Blows. That power is very sick. Very, very sick.

I didn't get any notes taken this session, but since it was a light roleplaying session that is mostly okay. I am not sure about the name of our Lizardfolk contact, and I had to think pretty hard about the order things happened in (demons>eladrin>lizardfolk>orcs). Since I do this more as a benefit to the group, should we ever be nostalgic our curious or . . .anything, and less as a showing off of our cool game, I really should be a little more consistent with that. In other news, I took a bunch of pictures, so that is cool, right?

Jay

2/21 Actual Play: The Rat Mother One-Shot

This past weekend I ran a one shot, attempting gritty low magic 4e. It could be argued that 4e's very nature is against this, even outlawing all but Martial classes is not enough, since some of the things they can do are so over the top.

We did not outlaw any power sources. In fact, I scrounged preview material from around the web, and brought it in case anyone wanted to give them a shot. Since the plan was to roll 3d6 in order it made sense to provide a larger number of classes, hopefully accommodating any wonky rolled scores.

We were short, it was me, Jesse, Dan, and Chris. I had prepared a few 4th level and higher combats for our 1st level characters with 5 PC's as baseline. I did not pull punches. To me gritty means overwhelming odds and a sense of despair and inevitable failure. This is why I do not prefer gritty games. I don't like feeling like a . . .torturer, I like facilitating awesomeness.

Anyhow, rolling went well thanks to Jesse and his suspiciously well rolling dice. I had pre-rolled a Human Sorcerer, Jesse rolled up a Dragonborn Sorcerer, Dan rolled a Half-Orc Barbarian, and Chris had a Minotaur Warden. We were all members of a nomadic group of nomads, traveling travelers if you will. We were headed North with our 11 wagons to begin the Spring portion of our trading and festivalling with the cities there. We used Jesse's large 1" grid pad of paper, and I had cut out 2x3 'wagons' the night before. Each wagon was pulled by an ox. Despite their appearances. Although I sometimes wish I had 11 Large Oxen in my minis collection, I used what I had.

Due to some unforeseen delays during their trip the caravan was running late. The sun was setting when they drew within sight of their first city. A few moments later three individuals emerged from the brush. They were quite disturbed that the caravan had arrived just now and told them that for their own safety they needed to turn around right now and not come back. Unfortunately, time was not on the side of the party, and with the sun going down and these people insisting that they did *not* want to be here after dark, the party was left with no choice but to circle the wagons.

I let them arrange the wagons in a circle however they wanted. Jesse did it, and chose to leave the animals near their wagons to aid in a quick getaway. This seemed like a bright idea at the time, but was in hindsight not so great. One of the folks who had leaped out ran off to get help from the farmstead where they all stayed, and the others watched the road to the town nervously.

Sure enough, the sun had gone down but the sky was still purple with sunset when some creatures burst into sight. Two wererats, two human rogues, and two rats attacked the caravan. Right away there were problems. Dan, who is sometimes a spotty roller (I know, its the dice. It is random. There is no outside force. It is not his or anyone else's fault. But this happened with the first edition of Arlarond in our current campaign. Sometimes he is hot, and sometimes cold. Right now our melee striker was cold) was rolling on the low side, and my wild sorcerer only rolled even when he rolled like, 6es, and that was pretty often. Jesse's Dragonborn Sorcerer was the Dragon build and had quite a bit of success. He had Con problems like my sorcerer and getting close to do damage was dangerous, but he did quite well.

It was those damned wererats and their regeneration. At low levels that is such a tough thing to overcome. After the rats and wererats had breached the perimeter and killed the two outsider NPC's, as well as a couple oxen, they managed to infect Dan and Jesse's PC's with filth fever. For a one shot this is not world-ending, but since Jesse only had something like 4 surges to begin with it was kind of. . . mean of them. The next stage of the disease only triggered on an extended rest, so I though we would be safe for the rest of the session. It is not like you can get *double* filth fever.

I deliberately did not mention Chris' Warden because I want to separate him from the rest of the riffraff. He was stellar. I outlaw the oversized weapon property when I run, so it was not that, it was his huge pool of HP's and his AC of 19. He was pretty much invulnerable. He only got to activate his mark once or twice, but it was his powers that healed him and his daily. . .I'm getting ahead of myself. Also, more foreshadowing: they found a couple glass vials of silver used to coat weapons for combat against lycanthropes.

With no locals left to give them any sort of direction they party healed up (nobody chose a Leader, so the caravan included a few herbalists and lore masters who healed them between encounters. In a low magic way) and waited. A few more commoners arrived and told them what was up. Awhile ago the city was besieged by these huge rats, and their bites turned the victims feral. A few people sought refuge outside the city and kept their location as secret as they could.

Some of them took turns watching the road and warning travelers away. They hoped to complete their ultimate weapon and kill the source of this infestation, and the caravan had arrived with just the tools they needed to complete the job. They had build a huge ballista, with a bolt made of silver. All they needed was a bit more silver and the opportunity to fire it and they could end this all. Jesse went to work preparing his wagon for the ballista.

After a few hours they were attacked again. This time, rather than just a group of scouts, the attack was intended to cripple or kill the caravan entirely. The fire elemental marks the location of the large bonfire they kept roaring in hopes of keeping the enemies at bay. Jesse also mounted torches on the outside of all the wagons, keeping the whole area illuminated.

The first attack was a pack of Dire Rats and 2 feral halflings with slings. From the shadows around the caravan glittery eyes watched, and a few rushed from the sides. Jesse, Dan, and Chris all focused on the main attack, and I had the rear all by myself. The halflings were deadly, and could launch 3 stones each when their power recharged. Chris closed with them, and they would shift back and hit him again. So he used his daily. In addition to giving him another point of AC, it made all the spaces within 2 of him difficult terrain. No more shift-attacks for them. Dan took out the two minions on his side, raged, and charged at the main pack of rats. He had a power that added 7 temp HP each time it connected, and these rats broke their teeth on that temp HP.

Meanwhile, I was getting harassed. . .by two crappy little rat minions. 16 HP and a super low AC meant that I was just meat waiting to be eaten. I kept shift-attacking, but could not land a hit. These are *minions*, all I needed to do was hit them. Jeez. Chris, who was playing his defender to the hilt withdrew from the halflings and charged across the battlefield to save me.

He arrived just in time to help me kill them, and killed one of the rat minions on the way. The consequence was dire, though. The halflings, now free to sling stones again, turned their wrath on Jesse and Dan. The NPC's had long since died. They were soon joined by Dan's character. He went to negative HP's and fell. This is not the first time this same Half-Orc barbarian had died quickly in an unheroic fashion. His first appearance was as a an NPC in a 3.5 game run by Dan. Josh convinced him to scout ahead with a glowing falchion, and he was pin cushioned when he rounded a corner. The picture shows Dan, dead (the Ramborc) and the dead NPC's.

While Dan rolled dice for his next PC we struggled to finish the fight with us as winners. Most of the rats had died, and only one minon remained (whiffing as he tried to chew the leg off of an ox). Chris once again shut the halflings down and we won.

Dan rolled up a Halfling Bard and was filling in the numbers as dawn approached. An hour or so before daybreak the rest of the survivors showed up. They had the broken down ballista strapped their backs, and three of them helped Jesse mount it on the top of his wagon. Three more went to work smelting the silver to try and cover the rest of the ballista bolt.

Again, like clockwork, the rats attacked before the party was ready. I prefaced the attack with a metagame discussion. The rats and feral humanoids were all minions. The Large mini was the Rat mother, gravid with young. The NPC's told the party they needed at least one more minute to finish setting things up. The party had to protect the caravan for 10 rounds. NPC's are minions, too, and each one that dies lengthens the challenge. Firing the ballista is an auto-win, so the goal was to protect.

I underestimated the lure of killing minions. Jesse rushed in with his area attacks and killed quite a few in the first round. We all did our best to wipe out minions in the first round. The next round, 4 more appeared on our flank. The round after that 4 more appeared. With everyone in the same spot they just walked right in to the camp.

Of course, the Rat Mother was not just sitting back an allowing it to happen. She had reach, and as soon as she could, she grabbed Chris and kept him from going anywhere (for one round at least), and mauled the crap out of Jesse. This is where I took the picture. Jesse is bleeding out. The camp is filled with minions (The fiery bird thing is the ballista, and the elemental is the fire. The pale dude with the stick is me, and the halfling there is Dan. Chris is the Minotaur. Jesse is the blue dude lying down at the top.) Jesse shouted to one of our friends to grab the vial of silver from Dan's character and just dump it over the bolt. He went to do it and was flanked by two minions. I was almost dead. Minons kept arriving, swarming the wagon and killing our helpers there. Our friend managed to get the silver, get it on the bolt, and run it to Chris. All while being attacked. The other helper rolled an assist to help Dan take his second wind, and he used his multi-class cleric power to heal Jesse. They were both beat down again, however, leaving Chris as the sole remaining PC. He climbed up to the ballista. Rats were swarming up the front, clawing at him from the rear, and he rolled the shot.

And he hit. The bolt smashed through the Rat Mother. The remaining minions went into a frenzy and began tearing each other apart. Chris was able to go and save his teammates.

Chris is the only PC in that picture. He was swarmed.

That was all. I thought that will all new classes and no handy power cards we would take a lot longer to get through the encounters. It turns out that when half of the PC's are bleeding out combat goes pretty quickly.

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I feel less need to separate my random thoughts from the narrative with these one shot write-ups, but I still have a few things to ruminate on.

Here is the invincible rat mother

Clearly, either the party would have had to focus fire on her or go through my hoops to kill her. Her tactics, which she stuck to, were to stand back and use all of her actions to command minions. When she was approached she used frenzy and grabbed the defender to keep him from helping his friends and clawed the crap out of Jesse. Later in the fight she was dazed by me, which was a help.

She was a Soldier. I don't like that. This is what triggered my rant last week. In the end it really does not matter, but it can still bother me.

The Warden was sweet. Not so much for his marking, which we didn't really see, but because of his powers. They kept him standing. They kept the ranged enemies locked down. He had probably as much HP as the rest of the party. And the highest AC. Very cool. My Sorcerer was fun, but I only chose that build because of the numbers I had. I hate the random aspect. Jesse's build seemed cooler on paper, but is kind of scary. Low AC and lots of powers with close range is a disaster waiting to happen. Proper coordination with a defender should mitigate this somewhat, but I'm not sure I would jump to play one. . .yet. The Barbarian seemed fun. More rages to choose from will be cool, and higher levels where he can just about rage every fight will be nice.

The Bard was disappointing. Granted, he was only up for 1/2 of a fight. Less than 6 rounds. But, when you need a leader most is when you are bleeding on the ground, and the Bard just did not pull through there. Maybe the preview info we had was glitched or wrong, but there was not class ability that healed. His powers were cool, kind of. His at will that enabled him to mark for an ally has so many uses, and skill challenges or non-combat encounters will be his bread and butter. I was really hoping for a viable Bard as a class, not so much for my sake, but for Dan's sake. He wants it. When 4e came out my standard for it not sucking was the Half-Elf Bard also not sucking. Please don't suck Half-Elf Bard, not like 3.5.

So . . .the $64,000 question. . .is 4e gritty? It can be. Even with magic and fantastic races (Dragonborn Sorcerer is not gritty) I think we had a gritty feel. Low magic enemies and no magic gear helps. I think a campaign that attempted gritty would be well served by limiting classes or power sources. Swordmages would be out, but I think Artificers properly flavored would fit in well. Limiting the party to humans might work well, too. Keep magic items out and just give static bonuses to compensate. Rolling dice though. . .I think playing a character long term might make it less viable. Limit point buy to 18 or something if you really want to keep power down. No 20's for starting stats. As much as I hate houserules (I have one 4e houserule, no oversized weapons) for gritty to work you might have to consider some.

Next week should see the continuation of our main campaign. . .

Jay