Post by idrahil on Jun 2, 2013 14:54:51 GMT -6
Ok, so it took a long time to finally get around to playing again. With the end of school it seemed every weekend was full of parties, banquets, studying and other events.
But we finally got around to sit at the gaming table. Here is part 2.
The last session ended after they had vanquished a ghoul that they had freed from it's tomb. Here, they decided would be a perfect spot to rest. (Time is somewhat of the essence in this adventure but I figured they could rest for an hour.)
Of course they roll a 1 on the random encounter die. What better encounter to interrupt their rest than zombies rising from the dirt? I just had 2 zombies pop up and they took care of them pretty easily. It was more of a flavor encounter.
With the zombies destroyed, they continued. They wisely avoided the "shadowed area" in the trees (Actually a giant spider lair) and continued until they heard the sound of battle in the distance.
The thief climbed a tree to get a look (I am really enjoying the DD thief abilities. They make a thief useful instead of a bumbling fool) and she reported that there were grim looking men on horseback fighting 4 skeletons. One of the men slumped over his horse; apparently asleep or dead. The horses had the brand of the Rainbow Lodge on their hind quarters. These must be the horses they were looking for!
They decided to try and work past the melee and try to take out the bandits and skeletons before the skeletons killed the horses or the bandits fled.
They set up and enter the fray.
Per the module, the leader of the bandits peels off to get away once this happens. My daughter (the thief) tried to jump on to his horse. She lands on the horse then struggles with the leader. I did a simple Strength check mechanic. WHo ever rolled equel or lower then their STR 3 times first, would overpower the other.
The bandit, being a burly man, won out and back hands the thief off his horse and makes his get away. The thief decided to try and hit with her sling. She hits and rolls a 5 for damage. Wanting to reward fast thinking and the lucky rool, I decided to have the leader try and roll to stay on the horse. Simple DEX check which he failed. Off the horse he fell. He fights the thief and inflicts 4 HP of damage, before the thief manages to hit the defeat the leader.
Back at the skeleton/bandit melee, the plan was for the Knight to attack the skeletons while the Elf and NPC hireling attack the bandits with bows.
Again, the Dagger rules of the Knight allowing 2 attacks per round proved to be the difference. Honestly, having a Fighting-Man attack twice per round against AC 6 and 7 and then doing D6 +1 damage (for STR) is pretty deadly. It's very weird because I would have thought that limiting damage to D6 and not having feats and such would make for a weak fighter. Pretty opposite. The FM is hitting more often and doing 12% more damage each hit. Giving hit the ability to do that twice a round is pretty amazing. I'm not doing this battle justice, but he is like carving these people up. Add his AC 2 and it's like watching a bully beat up the weak kids.
The elf and Stable boy kept the bandits honest with their bow fire up until the bandits morale failed and the 3 left tried to get away. Here, I sort of lead my daughter to use her Sleep Spell. They were trying to figure out how to stop their escape so I say "Isn't their something the elf could do to stop their escape?" She sort of looks over her character sheet, unsure. Then she has the "aha!" moment and casts her Sleep spell. I'm hoping this will lead to a more careful approach to using her magic and to even remember she can cast it!
So they defeat the bandits and gather up the spoils. The Module has the treasure worked out so all there was left was to store it all. One thing I did was add a surprise in one of the bandit's saddle bags...in addition to the sack of silver coins, a Black Widow Spider pops out! Saving throw to avoid it which she failed but then combat was fairly quick (1 HP).
The heroes make their way back to the Lodge and are welcomed as heroes. I threw in a visiting Merchant Caravan so that they could sell the jewels and jewelry they found. The LT that hired them gave them their reward: 25 GP each and horses of their own.
With the Treasure and XP for enemies, everyone got 1042 xp and the Stable Boy (their hireling) quit and took his new found riches to the nearest city!
In the midst of their celebration and business with the travelling merchant, they noticed a crying halfling woman (changed fro the module's gnome). Why was she crying in the midst of the celebration???
That would be answered next time!
One thing of note, the Bandit Leader in the module carried a +1 Shield and +1 Sword as well as 10 +1 arrows. Not wanting to drop that much magic into the campaign yet, I eliminated the Magic Sword and Shield and threw 4 100 GP, silver ingots into his pack. This gave them each an extra 110 xp. I left the arrows because I have learned that they are VERY cautious with items that have limited uses.
Thoughts on how +1 shields and swords can affect a campaign are welcome as well as alternate ways to make rulings (especially on how I handled the thief jumping on the leader's horse).
But we finally got around to sit at the gaming table. Here is part 2.
The last session ended after they had vanquished a ghoul that they had freed from it's tomb. Here, they decided would be a perfect spot to rest. (Time is somewhat of the essence in this adventure but I figured they could rest for an hour.)
Of course they roll a 1 on the random encounter die. What better encounter to interrupt their rest than zombies rising from the dirt? I just had 2 zombies pop up and they took care of them pretty easily. It was more of a flavor encounter.
With the zombies destroyed, they continued. They wisely avoided the "shadowed area" in the trees (Actually a giant spider lair) and continued until they heard the sound of battle in the distance.
The thief climbed a tree to get a look (I am really enjoying the DD thief abilities. They make a thief useful instead of a bumbling fool) and she reported that there were grim looking men on horseback fighting 4 skeletons. One of the men slumped over his horse; apparently asleep or dead. The horses had the brand of the Rainbow Lodge on their hind quarters. These must be the horses they were looking for!
They decided to try and work past the melee and try to take out the bandits and skeletons before the skeletons killed the horses or the bandits fled.
They set up and enter the fray.
Per the module, the leader of the bandits peels off to get away once this happens. My daughter (the thief) tried to jump on to his horse. She lands on the horse then struggles with the leader. I did a simple Strength check mechanic. WHo ever rolled equel or lower then their STR 3 times first, would overpower the other.
The bandit, being a burly man, won out and back hands the thief off his horse and makes his get away. The thief decided to try and hit with her sling. She hits and rolls a 5 for damage. Wanting to reward fast thinking and the lucky rool, I decided to have the leader try and roll to stay on the horse. Simple DEX check which he failed. Off the horse he fell. He fights the thief and inflicts 4 HP of damage, before the thief manages to hit the defeat the leader.
Back at the skeleton/bandit melee, the plan was for the Knight to attack the skeletons while the Elf and NPC hireling attack the bandits with bows.
Again, the Dagger rules of the Knight allowing 2 attacks per round proved to be the difference. Honestly, having a Fighting-Man attack twice per round against AC 6 and 7 and then doing D6 +1 damage (for STR) is pretty deadly. It's very weird because I would have thought that limiting damage to D6 and not having feats and such would make for a weak fighter. Pretty opposite. The FM is hitting more often and doing 12% more damage each hit. Giving hit the ability to do that twice a round is pretty amazing. I'm not doing this battle justice, but he is like carving these people up. Add his AC 2 and it's like watching a bully beat up the weak kids.
The elf and Stable boy kept the bandits honest with their bow fire up until the bandits morale failed and the 3 left tried to get away. Here, I sort of lead my daughter to use her Sleep Spell. They were trying to figure out how to stop their escape so I say "Isn't their something the elf could do to stop their escape?" She sort of looks over her character sheet, unsure. Then she has the "aha!" moment and casts her Sleep spell. I'm hoping this will lead to a more careful approach to using her magic and to even remember she can cast it!
So they defeat the bandits and gather up the spoils. The Module has the treasure worked out so all there was left was to store it all. One thing I did was add a surprise in one of the bandit's saddle bags...in addition to the sack of silver coins, a Black Widow Spider pops out! Saving throw to avoid it which she failed but then combat was fairly quick (1 HP).
The heroes make their way back to the Lodge and are welcomed as heroes. I threw in a visiting Merchant Caravan so that they could sell the jewels and jewelry they found. The LT that hired them gave them their reward: 25 GP each and horses of their own.
With the Treasure and XP for enemies, everyone got 1042 xp and the Stable Boy (their hireling) quit and took his new found riches to the nearest city!
In the midst of their celebration and business with the travelling merchant, they noticed a crying halfling woman (changed fro the module's gnome). Why was she crying in the midst of the celebration???
That would be answered next time!
One thing of note, the Bandit Leader in the module carried a +1 Shield and +1 Sword as well as 10 +1 arrows. Not wanting to drop that much magic into the campaign yet, I eliminated the Magic Sword and Shield and threw 4 100 GP, silver ingots into his pack. This gave them each an extra 110 xp. I left the arrows because I have learned that they are VERY cautious with items that have limited uses.
Thoughts on how +1 shields and swords can affect a campaign are welcome as well as alternate ways to make rulings (especially on how I handled the thief jumping on the leader's horse).