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Session 2
June 29, 2008
Okay, to pick up where we left off with our last session.....
The PCs had just dropped the last dire rat and Gumba was in the hallway with the giant rats and two goblin warriors (who were setting up a little fire wall where the hallway gets wider so that only one person can squeeze between the flames to attack). The PCs line up and start hurling things, like eldritch blasts and magic missles, down at the rats and goblins. One gobbo runs off, out the front of the cave and eventually circles around behind them. Meanwhile, they eventually drop the rats and the other goblin, the sneaky one arriving just a hair too late and meeting a quick end as the party turns to greet him. One highlight of this finishing off of the goblins is that one was throwing javelins. Well, he missed a few times and Ugnar pulled one out of the wall and threw it back. Nice improvisation since he didn't have a ranged weapon.
Now, from around the corner they hear a lot of goblin voices. A LOT. So, being wiped out of daily and encounter powers they wisely decide to go into the forest and find a place to lay low and recover from their wounds. There is only one problem with this strategy. Filth Fever. That's right. The dire rats can infect their victims with filth fever when they bite. So, Ugnar and Gumba are infected and after the rest don't do too well on their saves. Sliding down the disease track to the next level, they lose some healing surges and suffer a -2 on all defenses. Not good. They decide to rest a little more (they get saves to get better, worse or remain the same after resting) and that doesn't go as well as planned. Gumba holds steady but Ugnar succumbs to the next level of the debilitating disease..... losing all healing surges and suffering further minuses. At this point a local ranger who lives around Greenvale arrives to help them. You see, I think I forgot to mention that last session Ugnar performed a little ritual and sent an animal messenger (a sparrow) with word of their progress back to town and let them know about the bodies. So, some people went to pick up the slain caravan guards the PCs had found and the Elven ranger (Saurros) decides to go help them. This is a good thing.
So, with a new friend and two sick members, the party heads back to the caves. As they approach, they are attacked just outside the cave by some waiting goblins. Four warriors and four cutters. The battle is a little tougher than is should have been due to some unlucky rolls on the PC side of things, but they get through it all the same. Once the ambush is taken care of, the enter the goblin cave. Same way as before, through the secret entrance and into the guard room. And again stealth is appearantly not an option as they walk into a small group of waiting goblins and rats. Hey, what did they expect, right? Now I forget what exactly this little group was composed of but there was one goblin sharpshooter and a couple of giant rats (minions) and... yep, one more dire rat. A little side note, I don't think I've used (or fought) a dire rat since maybe first edition. Well, I have to say... the rat is back. And with a vengence. Just seeing the dire rat upsets the party, but they throw themselves into the fray and the battle is fairly short but tough. I'll give you one guess as to what gave them the most trouble. Needless to say, when your cleric lacks healing surges for himself... not good. Ugnar dropped in this fight and the party was without their cleric. Now, he's stable and will live, but with no healing surges available, he isn't getting up anytime soon. The potion of healing they found could not help him as well, as it triggers a healing surge (but gives a certain amount of hp instead of your surge #). So, Saurros takes the minotaur out to the woods and stashes the comatose cleric by creating a blind screen and using his nature and stealth skills.
With the cleric safely hidden until they can get him treated, the PCs trodd onward. They find a small store room where they pick up some gold and another potion of healing. Just to note, Gumba holds on to those as he is the defender and being in the front line has a way of eating up hitpoints. After raiding the storage they head deeper into the cave and the hallway splits. The (rightly) surmise that both ways lead to the same room but decide not to split up. Upon turning the corner, they find that they were right and in for quite a fight. Some goblins and giant rats are there, with one goblin being particularly jacked and looking psycho with his battle axe at the ready. Oh, and there is ANOTHER DIRE RAT!!! Morale sinks slightly, but they are brave and the fight begins.
So, despite the fact that I had this huge room for them to fight in, they decide to bottle up in the hallway. Okay, it's a good tactical decision I guess but the fight got hairy. First off the giant rats and goblin cutters (all minions) move up along with the really jacked goblin. A couple of javelins came in from goblin warriors as well to really get things rolling. The Warlock, who is kind of stuck in the back, decides to go around the other way and get in the room behind the goblins. However, there were some goblins and rats working that same idea on them. So, just as he turns the corner in to the room from the other hallway, he is face to face with a bunch of giant rats, a goblin warrior and a crazed looking goblin in a feathered headdress. He's a hexer, which is basically the goblin answer to the warlock, so there's a level of irony there for Auronn. He doesn't appreciate it though as he opts to high tail it back to the group while dropping eldritch blasts and curses on the way out. The hexer misses with a curse/hex of his own as Auronn backs up around the bend. At this point the fighting is pretty hectic at the other entrance to the room where Gumba is going to toe-to-toe with basically everything and Saurros and Evan lay in with some ranged fire. Evan tries an ice storm spell but misses and so the area becomes icy terrain for a period and that's all. Unfortunately not as effective as he would have liked.
At this point two things happen. 1) The Dragonborn Warlord (named Marinn and played Draxthis on this forum) shows up because he finished making him.... no back story really decided, we just had him come from the town to help out, found the cave and followed the sounds of combat. and 2) The hexer decides to harry the rest of the party at the other entrance instead of persuing Auronn. That's what he's got minions for anyway. Well, Marinn shoing up was a good, if not great, thing for Auronn and the rest of the party.. but mostly for Auronn first. He steps up and gets between the warlock and his pursuers, but the hexer drops an area effect hex on the rest of the group. It gives them -2 to all attacks AND grants the hexer's allies concealment. This coupled with Gumba's filth fever and his absolutely awfull rolling is spelling the end for our heroes.
The dire rat and the goblin skullcleaver (the jacked one with the axe) are doing a number on the party and it's not just Gumba who is rolling bad (I on the other hand seem to be rolling wonderfully, which is again not good for the party). Gumba goes down and starts making death saving throws. Saurros steps up to take the fighter's spot at the front line while Marinn and Auronn deal with other battle front. Then the hexer hit Evan with a blinding hex, effectively taking him out of the mix. Well, Marinn shifts and uses his inspiring word to revive Gumba but then Saurros goes down under the skullcleaver's axe. Another inspiring word revives Saurros, but now Evan takes a hit from the hexer and goes down. Saurros and Gumba both drop again, and we're left with Marinn holding the bag while Auronn circles around again to the other entrance. When the hexer blinds Auronn, the warlock starts firing wildly with his eldritch blasts and actually has better luck. Marinn finishes off the skullcleaver and the two drop the hexer. *EDIT: I was reminded that Auronn dropped the hexer with a critical eldritch blast, which was amplified by the fact that he cursed the goblin earlier, and while he was still blinded.* All is quiet, except for the sound of Auronn the blind still firing (hey, he doesn't know if there is anyone left) and stumbling around the room. He regains his sight while the warlord attends to the wounded and the party is back on its feet.
They notice that there are two other ways out of here, one is a shabby wooden door and the other a locked portcullis gate. The door reveals the hexer's quarters with a chest and some loot. Magic loot! A vicious longbow for the ranger, a thundering bastard sword for the warlord, leather armor for the warlock and a vicious great axe for the fighter. Also, another potion of healing (which is good cause they used the others after that last battle).
After looting it's onward through the portcullis gate and fight the jailors. This group is a sharpshooter, another skullcleaver, two cutters and a blackblade. They make short work of these guys (and the critical hit on the goblin blackblade is absolutely brutal, dealing out more than fifteen hitpoints then the thing has to begin with). They rescue the merchants from the pits they were crammed in and all is right with the world. But wait! First off, Finnley is not among them! The merchants explain that he tried to fight with the goblins and was subdued and taken to the "Mines of Pain". The merchants were too weak and wounded to make it back to town by themselves, so the party led them back (picking up the feverishly incapacitated Ugnar outside. Interesting side note, they were concerned that if Saurros died the survivors might not be able to find Ugnar when they left). In the last prisoner pit, off to the side, they found a lone figure who was not one of the merchants. The emmaciated figure was that of a Drow Elf. Wearing tattered clothes, it was appearant that he had been in this hole for quite some time. Saurros, turns his back not wanting anything to do with him, but Marinn and Auronn help him out of his pit. While they never ask his name, he is very cordial and thankful, speaking perfect common. His pulls from the folds of his tattered garments a small silver spider pin which he gives to Marinn as the only token of thanks he has. Auronn, ever the practical one, asks "We're not going to run in to you in the future and be sorry we let you free are we?" Obviously he says no and they ask a few other questions, gathering that the Drow was jumped in the forest by the Goblins about a month or two ago. His two companions were killed and he was taken prisoner. When the party speculates that the Drow were on a raid, he simply said "I don't know what stories you've heard about my people, but we are not that powerful. There was only three of us.". After that, they told him to leave and he grabbed a shortsword on his way out.
After arriving back in Greenvale, Gumba and Ugnar are treated by Ugnar's father for their filth fever and we ended the session there. XP was awarded (along with a generous story/quest reward) and the original four PCs leveled up.
Good Things:
Meh Things:
Players present:*
- Auronn - Half Elf Warlock (played by xmanowarx)
- Ugnar - Minotaur Cleric of Kord/Pelor (also played by xmanowarx)
- Gumba - Dwarf Fighter (played by dumdragon)
- Evan - Human Wizard (also played by dumdragon)
- Saurros - Elven Ranger (played by Draxthis)
- Marinn - Dragonborn Warlord (also played by Draxthis)
*Again we were short one of our regular players so everyone played two characters. Let's just say it was needed...
Okay, to pick up where we left off with our last session.....
The PCs had just dropped the last dire rat and Gumba was in the hallway with the giant rats and two goblin warriors (who were setting up a little fire wall where the hallway gets wider so that only one person can squeeze between the flames to attack). The PCs line up and start hurling things, like eldritch blasts and magic missles, down at the rats and goblins. One gobbo runs off, out the front of the cave and eventually circles around behind them. Meanwhile, they eventually drop the rats and the other goblin, the sneaky one arriving just a hair too late and meeting a quick end as the party turns to greet him. One highlight of this finishing off of the goblins is that one was throwing javelins. Well, he missed a few times and Ugnar pulled one out of the wall and threw it back. Nice improvisation since he didn't have a ranged weapon.
Now, from around the corner they hear a lot of goblin voices. A LOT. So, being wiped out of daily and encounter powers they wisely decide to go into the forest and find a place to lay low and recover from their wounds. There is only one problem with this strategy. Filth Fever. That's right. The dire rats can infect their victims with filth fever when they bite. So, Ugnar and Gumba are infected and after the rest don't do too well on their saves. Sliding down the disease track to the next level, they lose some healing surges and suffer a -2 on all defenses. Not good. They decide to rest a little more (they get saves to get better, worse or remain the same after resting) and that doesn't go as well as planned. Gumba holds steady but Ugnar succumbs to the next level of the debilitating disease..... losing all healing surges and suffering further minuses. At this point a local ranger who lives around Greenvale arrives to help them. You see, I think I forgot to mention that last session Ugnar performed a little ritual and sent an animal messenger (a sparrow) with word of their progress back to town and let them know about the bodies. So, some people went to pick up the slain caravan guards the PCs had found and the Elven ranger (Saurros) decides to go help them. This is a good thing.
So, with a new friend and two sick members, the party heads back to the caves. As they approach, they are attacked just outside the cave by some waiting goblins. Four warriors and four cutters. The battle is a little tougher than is should have been due to some unlucky rolls on the PC side of things, but they get through it all the same. Once the ambush is taken care of, the enter the goblin cave. Same way as before, through the secret entrance and into the guard room. And again stealth is appearantly not an option as they walk into a small group of waiting goblins and rats. Hey, what did they expect, right? Now I forget what exactly this little group was composed of but there was one goblin sharpshooter and a couple of giant rats (minions) and... yep, one more dire rat. A little side note, I don't think I've used (or fought) a dire rat since maybe first edition. Well, I have to say... the rat is back. And with a vengence. Just seeing the dire rat upsets the party, but they throw themselves into the fray and the battle is fairly short but tough. I'll give you one guess as to what gave them the most trouble. Needless to say, when your cleric lacks healing surges for himself... not good. Ugnar dropped in this fight and the party was without their cleric. Now, he's stable and will live, but with no healing surges available, he isn't getting up anytime soon. The potion of healing they found could not help him as well, as it triggers a healing surge (but gives a certain amount of hp instead of your surge #). So, Saurros takes the minotaur out to the woods and stashes the comatose cleric by creating a blind screen and using his nature and stealth skills.
With the cleric safely hidden until they can get him treated, the PCs trodd onward. They find a small store room where they pick up some gold and another potion of healing. Just to note, Gumba holds on to those as he is the defender and being in the front line has a way of eating up hitpoints. After raiding the storage they head deeper into the cave and the hallway splits. The (rightly) surmise that both ways lead to the same room but decide not to split up. Upon turning the corner, they find that they were right and in for quite a fight. Some goblins and giant rats are there, with one goblin being particularly jacked and looking psycho with his battle axe at the ready. Oh, and there is ANOTHER DIRE RAT!!! Morale sinks slightly, but they are brave and the fight begins.
So, despite the fact that I had this huge room for them to fight in, they decide to bottle up in the hallway. Okay, it's a good tactical decision I guess but the fight got hairy. First off the giant rats and goblin cutters (all minions) move up along with the really jacked goblin. A couple of javelins came in from goblin warriors as well to really get things rolling. The Warlock, who is kind of stuck in the back, decides to go around the other way and get in the room behind the goblins. However, there were some goblins and rats working that same idea on them. So, just as he turns the corner in to the room from the other hallway, he is face to face with a bunch of giant rats, a goblin warrior and a crazed looking goblin in a feathered headdress. He's a hexer, which is basically the goblin answer to the warlock, so there's a level of irony there for Auronn. He doesn't appreciate it though as he opts to high tail it back to the group while dropping eldritch blasts and curses on the way out. The hexer misses with a curse/hex of his own as Auronn backs up around the bend. At this point the fighting is pretty hectic at the other entrance to the room where Gumba is going to toe-to-toe with basically everything and Saurros and Evan lay in with some ranged fire. Evan tries an ice storm spell but misses and so the area becomes icy terrain for a period and that's all. Unfortunately not as effective as he would have liked.
At this point two things happen. 1) The Dragonborn Warlord (named Marinn and played Draxthis on this forum) shows up because he finished making him.... no back story really decided, we just had him come from the town to help out, found the cave and followed the sounds of combat. and 2) The hexer decides to harry the rest of the party at the other entrance instead of persuing Auronn. That's what he's got minions for anyway. Well, Marinn shoing up was a good, if not great, thing for Auronn and the rest of the party.. but mostly for Auronn first. He steps up and gets between the warlock and his pursuers, but the hexer drops an area effect hex on the rest of the group. It gives them -2 to all attacks AND grants the hexer's allies concealment. This coupled with Gumba's filth fever and his absolutely awfull rolling is spelling the end for our heroes.
The dire rat and the goblin skullcleaver (the jacked one with the axe) are doing a number on the party and it's not just Gumba who is rolling bad (I on the other hand seem to be rolling wonderfully, which is again not good for the party). Gumba goes down and starts making death saving throws. Saurros steps up to take the fighter's spot at the front line while Marinn and Auronn deal with other battle front. Then the hexer hit Evan with a blinding hex, effectively taking him out of the mix. Well, Marinn shifts and uses his inspiring word to revive Gumba but then Saurros goes down under the skullcleaver's axe. Another inspiring word revives Saurros, but now Evan takes a hit from the hexer and goes down. Saurros and Gumba both drop again, and we're left with Marinn holding the bag while Auronn circles around again to the other entrance. When the hexer blinds Auronn, the warlock starts firing wildly with his eldritch blasts and actually has better luck. Marinn finishes off the skullcleaver and the two drop the hexer. *EDIT: I was reminded that Auronn dropped the hexer with a critical eldritch blast, which was amplified by the fact that he cursed the goblin earlier, and while he was still blinded.* All is quiet, except for the sound of Auronn the blind still firing (hey, he doesn't know if there is anyone left) and stumbling around the room. He regains his sight while the warlord attends to the wounded and the party is back on its feet.
They notice that there are two other ways out of here, one is a shabby wooden door and the other a locked portcullis gate. The door reveals the hexer's quarters with a chest and some loot. Magic loot! A vicious longbow for the ranger, a thundering bastard sword for the warlord, leather armor for the warlock and a vicious great axe for the fighter. Also, another potion of healing (which is good cause they used the others after that last battle).
After looting it's onward through the portcullis gate and fight the jailors. This group is a sharpshooter, another skullcleaver, two cutters and a blackblade. They make short work of these guys (and the critical hit on the goblin blackblade is absolutely brutal, dealing out more than fifteen hitpoints then the thing has to begin with). They rescue the merchants from the pits they were crammed in and all is right with the world. But wait! First off, Finnley is not among them! The merchants explain that he tried to fight with the goblins and was subdued and taken to the "Mines of Pain". The merchants were too weak and wounded to make it back to town by themselves, so the party led them back (picking up the feverishly incapacitated Ugnar outside. Interesting side note, they were concerned that if Saurros died the survivors might not be able to find Ugnar when they left). In the last prisoner pit, off to the side, they found a lone figure who was not one of the merchants. The emmaciated figure was that of a Drow Elf. Wearing tattered clothes, it was appearant that he had been in this hole for quite some time. Saurros, turns his back not wanting anything to do with him, but Marinn and Auronn help him out of his pit. While they never ask his name, he is very cordial and thankful, speaking perfect common. His pulls from the folds of his tattered garments a small silver spider pin which he gives to Marinn as the only token of thanks he has. Auronn, ever the practical one, asks "We're not going to run in to you in the future and be sorry we let you free are we?" Obviously he says no and they ask a few other questions, gathering that the Drow was jumped in the forest by the Goblins about a month or two ago. His two companions were killed and he was taken prisoner. When the party speculates that the Drow were on a raid, he simply said "I don't know what stories you've heard about my people, but we are not that powerful. There was only three of us.". After that, they told him to leave and he grabbed a shortsword on his way out.
After arriving back in Greenvale, Gumba and Ugnar are treated by Ugnar's father for their filth fever and we ended the session there. XP was awarded (along with a generous story/quest reward) and the original four PCs leveled up.
Good Things:
- 4e combat is fun. I said it again cause it's true.
- The warlord was a life saver, especially with the cleric out of commission.
- The variety of each monster in the monster manual is great. It really help set up interesting combats. I mean, they really only fought rats and goblins so far and they have been having a good time doing it.
- Roles. I have to say, I was a little skeptical of the concept at first, but you know it really works out.
- Death Saving Throws. I like this little rule. It seems to take the mechanical/clockwork feel that developed with the losing a hit point every turn in the negatives thing.
Meh Things:
- Honestly, nothing comes to mind. I think it was a good session and fun was had by all (despite the poor rolling that the entire party seems to be afflicted with, but hey that's not my fault, or 4e's. I mean they all were rolling pretty bad last night, with maybe the exception being Saurros).
4e Crunch
Ambush outside cave4 Goblin Warriors (lvl 1 Skirmishers MM 137) and 4 Goblin Cutters (lvl 1 Minions MM 136). Total XP = 500Guards Waiting Inside
1 Goblin Sharpshooter (lvl 2 Artillary MM 137) 3 Giant Rats (lvl 1 Minions) 1 Dire Rat (lvl 1 Brute MM 219) and I think 2 Goblin Warriors. Total XP = 500 *I'm not 100% sure about what was in this fight. It was a total on the fly kind of thing and didn't write it down*The Big Fight
1 Goblin Hexer (lvl 3 Controller - Leader MM 137) 1 Goblin Skullcleaver (lvl 3 Brute MM 137) 1 Dire Rat, 4 Giant Rats, 4 Goblin Cutters, 3 Goblin Warriors Total XP = 800Jailors
1 Goblin Skullcleaver, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter, 1 Goblin Cutter, and 1 Goblin Blackblade (lvl 1 Lurker MM 136) Total XP = 400
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Thread started: Jul 1 2008, 12:04 AM EDT
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auronn actually blew the hexer's head off with a critical eldritch blast magnified by a curse (while blind). marinn was busy taking down the last goblin warrior.
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