This sessions was a pain in the ass to pre-plan, as the number of players has increased AGAIN. Now Corey is back playing. It made it hard to plan encounters because at first Mark was in, then he was out, and Dale was out, then in. So the number of PCs varied from 6-8 before we even began. Then in the actual session, where we had Shaun, Jamie, Justin, Mike, Cam, Dale and Corey, Cam had to leave, and then Corey had to leave. So the party went from 7 to 5.
Went with the no-roll for inits for enemies, probably just easiest to keep doing it this way.
They kind of meandered during the investigation phase. The book was actually pretty unclear of where to go on this. They found out a bit about Triel, and found out her appearance and traits and stuff...but I'm not sure how that was supposed to lead into finding the lava tube entrance. Eventually I had an anonymous note left at the Tipped Tankard for them. (actually from Artem, who isn't charging them for his services because he likes them and because Huron gave him a Demonskar Ball invitation.)
Discovered unfortunately that I was on completely the wrong side of the battlemap to start drawing the ruins. So we had to switch sides. Another annoying thing is how each square on the ruins map is 10 feet, not 5 feet...making drawing maps that much harder. (Also, doors are 10 feet wide?? This is weird.)
The battlemat itself is awesome. After the session I drew out more of the dungeon and rolled it up and it was fine. One thing I need to remember is to have an actual rag or erasing tool other than just random kleenex. I will try paper towel next time I guess.
The Skaven/Bronze Warder fight was surprisingly hard. The Bronze Warder's AC was simply too high. AC 25 is just too hard to hit.
One thing I should look up a bit more thoroughly is flanking rules, as in what squares actually qualify as flanking squares. There was a bit of confusion. Also, we really need to do up cards for Dale's and probably Corey's powers. Or do up a sheet...actually I will just do that.
Fighter using a dead hollowed-out goblin as a bag to hold his magic biscuits?
Wizard hurling bottles of poop and eggs instead of fireballs?
Frenzied berzerker being slowly and agonizingly drowned by a giant clam?
Time for a Madness Check.
After Session 9 - Baboons and Bandits
Session 9 - Baboons and Bandits
The session was chaotic with a full 6 (then later 7) players: Shaun, Jamie, Justin, Mark, Mike, Cam, and later Dale.
There was too much off-topic talking.
Didn't roll initiative for any enemies, just gave them 10 + their init mod. Worked fine except for the Human Rabble minions - with an Init bonus of +0, they were almost always killed before they got a turn. Maybe roll normally for minions?
Immediately the party split upon entering the Lucky Monkey, with Mike, Shaun and Jamie scaling up to the 2nd floor. The fight with the giant mob of bandits in the main barroom thus broke out with only Justin, Cam and Mark there - two casters and no real front-line fighters. To make matters worse, upstairs Shaun split from Mike and Jamie. Mike and Jamie headed for the stairs - which was close enough to trigger the "Tongueater support" encounter with 2 Last Laughs, a Gnoll Huntmaster and a Tiefling Heretic, and Shaun wandering through the halls was set to be ambushed by Revus and a few others, including a Bugbear Strangler.
Solved this by having Mike and Jamie make their way down unscathed, and Shaun fall through the floor when Cam threw a lightning-ball in the main room, destroying the ceiling.
The Revus encounter also went unused, since they never did explore the guest rooms. So instead had Revus come out and harry Shaun and Jamie when they were shooting down into the courtyard. He failed to do anything of note at all, fumbling and then getting taken down by Dale's hero point-powered 2nd floor chokeslam.
The Tongueater fight was anticlimactic as I didn't have the gnoll and tiefling and rogues support him. It was getting too late and I thought they would make the fight take too long. This was true; it would have, but at the same time the fight was kinda blah as a result. He delayed his inevitable death a bit by screeching and hitting all but Dale and Jamie, but really he didn't do much.
The printed out maps is a good idea, and it was good having a two-level encounter grid to interact with (especially in the courtyard which had PCs and enemies on multiple floors and in different rooms!)
Having two sheets of monster statistics didn't work very well. I was constantly flipping papers back and forth to look up ACs, hit points, etc.
NEXT TIME: Have pre-printed encounter sheets with numbers down the side for Initiative, with the monsters pre-rolled for Init (or using 10), and their hp/bloodied amount.
They took one prisoner, a female bandit (not a member of the Last Laugh). Haven't decided what she will know - probably nothing other than she was hired, she's a street thug, etc. Was hired directly by Triel so can describe her physically. Incidentally the party assumes Triel is a man at this point.
Established Alahind more as a friend to the party by having him pay for and arrange the teleport to the Lucky Monkey, and also by having him give Cam and Justin Demonskar Ball invites after they returned. This avenue is going perfectly so far.
Nothing with the Stormblades this session, though Dale did mention inviting Cora to the ball, and Mike got mad when he realized the Stormblades didn't need the invites they would have received had they won any of the Flood Festival contests.
Everyone liked their treasure items, though there was some minor squabbling when Jamie took Shaun's Flameburst +2 handcrossbow, and Dale took Jamie's Gloves of Flaying. It all worked out fine in the end but maybe there needs to be some kind of system.
Generic treasure (on a small printed handout) also worked well, as everyone got to see what the party got, and they got to take it with them in an easy, quick sheet.
The session was chaotic with a full 6 (then later 7) players: Shaun, Jamie, Justin, Mark, Mike, Cam, and later Dale.
There was too much off-topic talking.
Didn't roll initiative for any enemies, just gave them 10 + their init mod. Worked fine except for the Human Rabble minions - with an Init bonus of +0, they were almost always killed before they got a turn. Maybe roll normally for minions?
Immediately the party split upon entering the Lucky Monkey, with Mike, Shaun and Jamie scaling up to the 2nd floor. The fight with the giant mob of bandits in the main barroom thus broke out with only Justin, Cam and Mark there - two casters and no real front-line fighters. To make matters worse, upstairs Shaun split from Mike and Jamie. Mike and Jamie headed for the stairs - which was close enough to trigger the "Tongueater support" encounter with 2 Last Laughs, a Gnoll Huntmaster and a Tiefling Heretic, and Shaun wandering through the halls was set to be ambushed by Revus and a few others, including a Bugbear Strangler.
Solved this by having Mike and Jamie make their way down unscathed, and Shaun fall through the floor when Cam threw a lightning-ball in the main room, destroying the ceiling.
The Revus encounter also went unused, since they never did explore the guest rooms. So instead had Revus come out and harry Shaun and Jamie when they were shooting down into the courtyard. He failed to do anything of note at all, fumbling and then getting taken down by Dale's hero point-powered 2nd floor chokeslam.
The Tongueater fight was anticlimactic as I didn't have the gnoll and tiefling and rogues support him. It was getting too late and I thought they would make the fight take too long. This was true; it would have, but at the same time the fight was kinda blah as a result. He delayed his inevitable death a bit by screeching and hitting all but Dale and Jamie, but really he didn't do much.
The printed out maps is a good idea, and it was good having a two-level encounter grid to interact with (especially in the courtyard which had PCs and enemies on multiple floors and in different rooms!)
Having two sheets of monster statistics didn't work very well. I was constantly flipping papers back and forth to look up ACs, hit points, etc.
NEXT TIME: Have pre-printed encounter sheets with numbers down the side for Initiative, with the monsters pre-rolled for Init (or using 10), and their hp/bloodied amount.
They took one prisoner, a female bandit (not a member of the Last Laugh). Haven't decided what she will know - probably nothing other than she was hired, she's a street thug, etc. Was hired directly by Triel so can describe her physically. Incidentally the party assumes Triel is a man at this point.
Established Alahind more as a friend to the party by having him pay for and arrange the teleport to the Lucky Monkey, and also by having him give Cam and Justin Demonskar Ball invites after they returned. This avenue is going perfectly so far.
Nothing with the Stormblades this session, though Dale did mention inviting Cora to the ball, and Mike got mad when he realized the Stormblades didn't need the invites they would have received had they won any of the Flood Festival contests.
Everyone liked their treasure items, though there was some minor squabbling when Jamie took Shaun's Flameburst +2 handcrossbow, and Dale took Jamie's Gloves of Flaying. It all worked out fine in the end but maybe there needs to be some kind of system.
Generic treasure (on a small printed handout) also worked well, as everyone got to see what the party got, and they got to take it with them in an easy, quick sheet.
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