Friday 25 March 2011

Are you better off dying at the end of Keep on the Shadow Fell?

In the game we play we switched over three of character at the end of KotS. This was done with a small set of encounters where the changing characters where kidnapped and the rest of the party had to rescue them before moving on to Thunderspire Labyrinth. Therefore half the players have changed their character to new level 4 characters. This means that the new character have two magic items, Level 5 and 3, and the same money as a level 3.

Our party ended with the following characters and magic items:

Bob Human paladin - Shield of Protection Heavy Shield Level 3, +1 Aecris Level 5 Longsword

Frieda Eladrin Rogue - Vicious Short sword +1 Level 2, +2 Magic Dagger Level 6

Eric Elf Cleric - Symbol of Battle +1 Level 5, Bloodcut Hide Armour +1 Level 4

Glen Dwaven Fighter - Amulet of Health +1 Level 3 Black Iron Scale Armour +1 Level 4

Eligos Tiefling Warden - Dwarven Chainmail +1 level 2, Safewing Amulet +1 Level 3, Horned Helm Level 6.

Rodney Human Wizard - Magic Wand +1 Level 1, Elven Cloak +2 level 7, Bag of Holding Level 5

This averages out to each character with a level 4 and a level 5 item. So the items given out in KotS are higher levels but the characters have no choice in them.

In our case the Wizard got a wand, when really wanted a staff and Rogue ended up with two weapons. But other than that the items fell quite well, this surly can not be the case with all parties? We had three defenders in a six man party, where most five man parties only have one. Surely this defender be blinged up with Magic plate Amour, a magic shield, most probably a neck slot and a magic weapon. Leaving the rest of the party felling short changed.

Having the choice of your two magical items puts you in a lot better stead to max your character and choose with features you want, so surely the power gamer is always going to want to die and respawn with new shinny stuff that fits their character.

This does then lead to the next point of what happens to the old characters stuff? Purely as a balanced game view point the old characters stuff should die with them, or the emerging character should arrive with nothing so that the is the same balance of treasure. But the game is firstly and foremost a role-playing game. So why would a level 4 hero not have earned any treasure? And why would the remaining heroes not use the dead party member’s equipment? I have the changed characters kidnapped with all their stuff, but I guess if they died they could be buried with their weapons in a Viking style funeral.  



And finally what about all the gold? Our party had one character holding all the gold firstly Eric the Cleric and then once we found a bag of holding it went in there and was held by the wizard’s familiar. So as the Wizard didn’t leave the party does the new part have all the treasure? Therefore essentially stealing the missing party members share?

On the whole is seems that as KotS as a publish adventure has treasure at random, therefore will not always fit nicely into the party. But is this not what going into dungeons is about? The party can not always expect to get stuff that fits their character’s perfectly, but on the flip side if you keep killing off characters and bringing them back you will never have magical items more than one level higher than you.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Entrance Hall

What Happened


After treating their wounds the party headed out of the banquet hall to explore the rest of the building, but when they opened the banquet doors the entrance hall was not empty. While they had been fighting the Wraith and bandaging their cuts a hoard of undead had rallied and gathered in the lobby, Hogar knew exactly what he was looking at, vampire spawn and decrepit skeletons.


Initiative is rolled


Knowing exactly what he was dealing with Hogar and Diefenbaker slide around the doorway and move into an advantageous position to release a pair of arrows in quick succession. Both found their targets and drop two of the spawns to the ground. With the vampires not even hitting the floor yet Rodney summoned his cone of fire emanating from his hands, two minions managed to move quickly enough evade the fire, but one of the vampires and a skeleton were not so lucky. Moving out from the banquet hall Vicrael looked up onto the balcony above the party and saw a foe even he hadn’t encountered before. A robed mage with three faces, each one a flaming skull of different colour rotating into view as the previous one disappears into the mages hood.




 Not knowing what it was did not stop Vicrael putting a warlock’s curse upon him. Unable to shoot an arcane arrow at it though Vicrael took aim at a spawn but missed, undeterred he drew another arrow from his quiver and took aim but again with no success. Seeing that Vicrael was not making the grade Eligos charged in and hacked down the spawn that the bard was struggling with. The skull’s black face then rotated into view, its boned jaw chatting, and the first vampire Hogar killed stood back up with an arrow still lodged in its chest. In quick progression the blue and red skulls came into view each one sending an orb of matching colour from the mages staff, one hitting Minron and the other striking Glen.


As the blue flame stuck Minron and pushed him into the wall the main entrance door flung open and four dogs rushed in. These were not the only foe the party had not seen initially; from underneath the stair scuttled two kruthiks. Both their flesh and the hounds were putrid and barely clinging to the bone. Even with the holes in their tissue Hogar still eradicate a hound and another vampire with a pair of arrows. Not to be out done by the half-orc Rodney also wiped out a zombie dog and a vampire with a thunderous sonic wave that lashed up from the ground flinging them backwards as they crumpled. Having seen the awesome power that the skull mage possessed Glen headed towards the stairs to take him out, but in his way were the two undead reptiles. Not being able to manoeuvre past them Glen twice swung at the pair of them both connecting with the intended target. The first kruthik felt the full force of the dwarf’s axe blade but the second did not escape hurt as the urgrosh cleaved into it.



With both Vicrael and Eligos failing to hit there foes Minron smashed a hounds head with the flat of his shield while Hogar, seemingly unable to missed, took out another wolf and a skeletal archer. Spurred on by his current form with the bow Hogar he drew two more arrows, again both found their marks. The first felling another archer and the second causing a kruthik to rive in pain.


With only the kruthiks and a skeleton stopping the party from reaching the undead mage both Rodney and Glen unleashed the full force of their powers on the kruthiks. Rodney iced both of them with some enchanted rays while Glen hacked and hewed them. With the primal power of the ram coursing through her khopesh Eligos hit a now bloodied kruthik, as she did so thunder stemmed from her blade ripping the other kruthik apart. Minron finished off the depleted kruthik, but the mage raised another vampire and struck out with his elemental orbs. Hogar killed off the remaining minions leaving the stairs free for Glen and Eligos to advance and swipe at the mage. Neither of their advances dampened the mages resolve, but once Minron’s horns knocked him to the ground the party quickly dispatch him. Vicrael, finally finding his target, displaced the black skull from the under the mages hood with a cursed arrow before Hogar’s sword and Glen axes took out the blue and red. As the last skull fell to the ground the mages cloak flattened as if the skull’s energy was holding it together, the skulls then each rolled off the balcony though the gaps in the banisters. But inches before they hit the ground they all conjoined at flew though a previously locked door.


 

DM Points


Monsters: 1x Skull Lord (L6 Artillery leader), 5 x Vampire Spawn (L5 minion), 4x Decrepit Skeleton (L1 minion), 4x Rot Hound (L1 minion), 2 x Kruthik Young Zombie (L5 Brute) – 1100 xp Level 4 Encounter.


Map "Entrance Hall" Created map, see picture below.


When I first looks through the Monster Manual at undead enemies one jumped out at me as something I wanted to use, The Skull Lord. He looks as If he would boss the battlefield, striking two opponents and endlessly raising minions from the grave. Therefore this was the first encounter I created, even before I knew it would be in a mansion. I originally had the skull lord straight out of the monster manual, therefore a level 10 enemy, and had him surrounded by level 1 minions to account for his massive 500xp he carried. But when we played a Christmas encounter over the holidays the then level 3 characters really struggled to hit the level 7 and 8 enemies I added in. So I ran the skull lord through the monster builder to lower him to a level 6, this gave me and extra 250xp. As the skull lord can raise monsters up to his level +2 I added some vampire spawn (L5) I also added in some non-minions as protection for the Skull lord. These first were Boneshard Skeletons, but when I read through Open Grave and saw that there were Kruthik zombies I swapped them straight over as I thought they would give a creepier feel. On reflection the Skull Lord’s raise dead is very slow. The party were killing about 5 minions per turn so raising one did not slow them down very much at all. This was mainly because the minions were such a low level. If I had put a few level 8 minions in there way they would have killed one or two a turn, and with one coming back every round would have been a lot more effective. Also the zombie weakness of the Kruthiks meant they were not very good blockers, and when they fell the encounter was pretty much over.




Sunday 20 March 2011

Banquet Hall


What Happened


With all of the monsters dispatched of the party moved into the mansion thought the large oak doors. As Eligos pushes open the solid doors she revealed a large entrance hall. Red carpets lead the adventures eyes to two more double doors and up a lavish staircase. Towering in the far corner of the room has a 10 feet tall granite statue of a female warrior. Above her head she held a stone longsword. After quickly scanning the area the party moved though a set of double doors to their left in to a banquet hall. They saw a wooden table with eight chairs around it, on the table were two candelabras, and there is a tall stone fireplace on the south wall. The flickering flames of the fire and the dim candles are the only light sources in the room as the windows have been boarded over. Sat around the table were four zombies with huge wings they all turned to look straight at the party with dead eyes.



Initiative is rolled

Eligos, stood at the front as usually, bursts thought the door to attack the nearest zombie and sliced one of its arm off with her Khopesh. Vicrael not so hastily followed her into the room past Rodney and Glen. The bard took aim at the zombie at the far end of the table with an arcane arrow and jinked his foe. Minron, following up on Eligos’ example, charged into the room at sunk his horns into a zombie to knock it flat on the floor. Rodney’s wand then fired out two icy rays, one connecting and the other not, this held the jinked zombie in place. Therefore only one zombie was free to move, which he used to full effect as he flew straight at Glen smashing him backwards. Not deterred by this great shove, Glen promptly returned the favour by hurling himself back towards the zombie also knocking it prone. Minron capitalised on the zombie’s position, and like an executioner took the fiends head clean off.

Then out of the wall floated a shadowy cloak, everyone could heard infectious whispering in their head making them feel disorientated, this only got worst for Glen as when the Wraith’s hand touched him he had an overwhelming urge to attack Vicrael. Undeterred by the inner voices Hogar released two arrows bound for the winged undead, one of which shot straight though an eye socket leaving the zombie motionless for a split second before it dropped to the floor. 




Over the other side of the room Minron’s sword kept swinging. Outside of the Wraith’s reach he arced his blade full circle before decapitating another winged zombie. Before advancing on the last zombie and driving the point of his blade straight through it’s chest and out the other aside.

With only the Wraith left to deal with Glen and Vicrael used axe and arrow on try and stop the evil whispering, but found that their weapons were not proving so effective as usually as they seems to slip though the cloak. Rodney attempted to knock it out with a sleep spell; this only seemed to slow the Wraith who then drifted though a wall into the entrance hall.  Rodney and Glen followed and dealt it a couple more blows before Glen was against consumed with internal wrath. He surged toward Rodney and split the mage’s blood with his axe edge. The wraith again moved thought the wall to approach Vicrael. The half elf tried to move away from the hooded figure only he find himself clawed by a deathly hand. This damage left the Bard struggling to remain conscious. Thankfully Rodney returned from the hall to deal a final blow to the Wraith with a well-placed magic missile. 


DM Points

Monsters: 4 x Skullborn Rotwing Zombies (L4 Skirmishers) 1 x Mad Wraith (L6 Controller) 950 xp Level 3 Encounter

Map "Banquet Hall" Created map, see picture below.

I created this map before I really knew what monsters were going into the area. I had decided that the mansion would have a few set rooms and dining room was one of them. I wanted to create a feeling of grandeur, and the image of swashbuckling on a table seems to adhere itself to me. The encounter, as you can see below, is split into two distinctive areas Kitchen Area and Dining Area. One of the reasons I picked the Wraith to go into this encounter was so he could phase between the areas and ghost though the table. Neither of these things happened. He did ghost in from the kitchen and drift in and out of the hall but the kitchen areas didn’t feature didn’t really feature at all, at no point was a miniature from either side in the kitchen area.

The monster temple I used for this encounter was Battlefield control. Every monster I have used in these encounters originally was a monster from Monster Manual 1 due to creating most of it in a car on the way to Yorkshire. So the original line up for this encounter was 1x Mad Wraith, and 5x Rotwing Zombies. I was restricted by only picking undead monsters and undead skirmishers are few are far between in MM1, so Rotwings were the easy choice. But after looking on the monster builder I found the Skullborn Rotwings. Same xp same hp and defences, but move movement and no clumsy flying. Also there standard attack is 2d6+3 (average 10 dmg) rather than 1d8+2 (ave 6.5 dmg), the Skullborn’s charge doesn’t do as much extra dmg but does push the target, so I’m unsure why you would ever pick the standard Rotwing over its faster more powerful Skullborn friend. Either way both die pretty quickly to critical hits, which is what happened to all 4 in this encounter.

The Wraith stayed in mainly because he looked difficult to deal with and had a power we had not yet come up against, phasing. I was defiantly right about being difficult to deal with. His auras gave the party a big decision on their turns, either move out of the aura and take no action that turn or attack the Wraith and have good chance of taking 5 damage and remaining dazed on their next turn. As the Wraith had 2 or 3 player in his aura at all times this was quite annoying for the party. D and D is about playing a heroic character, with our large party it takes us about 10 minutes per round, so it was understandable that no one really wanted to miss their heroic moment by just moving their miniature to the other side of the room and then watch everyone else roll dice for ten minutes.

I think the Wraith will be used again but introducing it while the party were two levels lower than him proved tricky.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Silverkin Courtyard

What Happened

The party headed through the dark orchard following the Wight mounted Wolf tracks, as the trees were so densely packed they could not see the other side. While they walked though the dimly light orchard each adventurer could hear eerie creaking as if the trees were pouring out their tortured souls, everyone even Vicrael who is usually very talkative, were deafly silent. When they reached the edge of the orchard the mansion came into view, it was not the stately manor house the party had been expected. All building was in disrepair; windows boarded over and garden overgrown. Two rows of tree lead up to a large solid wood double door, either side of which are two large stone plinths with stone gargoyles preached atop.



As the party approached the mansion stood in the doorway is the Wight and his undead mount. Again he spoke in his deathly voice “Well done! I was sure my horsemen would dispatch with you, it seems I may have under estimated you. I matters not you are too late to save you friends, soon they will be like us.”
Eligos felt her blood boil but was hesitant to advance towards the mansion, and with good cause. As she paused her animal instincts heard noises in the trees, she was just fast enough to warn the others before four smaller undead hounds leapt from the trees.






Initiative is rolled

Even with Eligos warning the party the wolves still acted first and charge into the sides party, the Wight’s wolf also charged. He charge straight into head on the party and sunk his teeth though Eligos’ chainmail, her pain was compounded as the Wight also struck her with a grave bolt rooting her to the spot. Surrounded by rotting wolves Glen swung his axes edge with no regard for this own safety and smashes a wolf’s head with maximum force. Vicrael unable to release an arrow with taking a bite from a wolf drew his scimitar and hacked it towards the nearest foe, but the wolf’s relaxes were a lot greater than the Lord’s strength and evaded the blade easily.





Hogar took advantage of a bloodied wolf and shoot to arrows into its side fatally wounding it.  Eligos, now immobilized and marked by the monstrous wolf, swung her khopesh and connected cleanly with the wolf’s torso and sliced away a huge chunk of putrid flesh. The wound began to heal over immediately, as did all the wounds inflicted on the wolves. The remaining three wolves kept feverously attacking the party, two of which combined to flank Minron. As he held one off with his shield the second leapt up his back and bit into his shoulder, the pain and force from the fiend force him to the ground. Eligos continued to absorb untold damage at the head of the party from the giant wolf, the Wight, shielding the lighter armoured members. Lord Vicrael repaid this protection by not only healing Eligos with a Majestic Word but also by releasing an arrow from his bow fuelled with arcane magic that dealt maximum damage and also jinked the beast. Rodney also repaid the warden by casting burning hands to hit the Wight and the great wolf with a cone of fire. Hogar the on the other hand did not repay the tiefling, or any other party member for that matter, as he wildly shot two arrows, both of which sailed off into the distant trees. He was so shocked by his own failure he was complete disorientated for a spilt seconds and let his guard down, thankfully the wolves were otherwise engaged and failed to capitalise on it. Glen and Minron were easily coping with the two wolves that were snapping at Minron’s heals and Glen’s chest, while Eligos took a final swipe at the large wolf to take it out. Not to be foiled so easily the Wight called upon the power of Orcus and the Monstrous Wolf, still with many khopesh holes still in it, stood and took another bite our of Eligos. As quickly as the wolf was raised we was toppled by Vicrael’s arcane archery. As the Wight stood alone with 6 adventures in front of him his eyes turned to the mansion door, but before his feet had time to join his gaze Minron’s horns were in his midriff goring him to the floor. Without an ounce of mercy Minron’s longsword was raised and glowing with Divine powers as he chatted a short prayer to the raven queen the Wight was no more.





DM Points

Monsters: 1x Death lock Wight (L4 controller), 4x Undead Grey Wolf (L2 Skirmisher), 1x Undead Grey Wolf Body Guard (L2 Elite Skirmisher) - 925xp Level 3 Encounter

Map: "Silverkin Mansion Outside" Created map, see picture below.

This encounter not only has my first created map but also has my first created monsters.

My first attempt a created a monster was to edit an exciting monster, and then add an elite template to that. So I took the standard grey wolf (MM1) and made it undead. This gave it immune to poison and disease resist necrotic and vulnerable to radiant. I also decided to add in regenerate 2, to balance this I have lowered their hp from 38 to 32. On reflection the regeneration and undead traits I added didn't add anything to the encounter; they didn't take anything away on the flip side. But I could have just as easily used the grey wolves’ stat block and told the party they looked undead, I think this was mainly due to no radiant, necrotic or poison damage being dealt, if there was the party would have expected to deal more or less damage.

I then created an elite version of the wolves. To do this I added the bodyguard template to the wolf. This gave it an action point, more hp, extra AC to adjacent allies and the ability to mark. This was even less of a success, I noticed after creating this monster that I had added a solider template to a skirmishing monster. I didn't know how much this would affect the encounter so I tried it, but having mixed roles meant that the monster wasn't great at either. It didn't have the high defences of a soldier and the aura of extra AC meant that it didn't move into positions enough to gain combat advantage to utilise its extra damage.

The map was fairly straight forward, as it didn't have many features. In essence it is just a big open space with a few trees. This looks ok but didn't add anything to the combat as every action everyone took happened between the trees.





 

Sunday 13 March 2011

My First Real Encounter – Mansion Approach

Once the party had left the inn they set off in the same direction the undead were heading, Hogar quickly picked up the tracks of the skeletal steeds which were to his surprise were heading in towards the mark Eilian the Old had placed on their map. Based on their current speed Hogar deducted that they would arrive at the estate in 2 days.

Nearly two days later

Nearing the estate the party approached the edge of an orchard of twisted and gnarly trees, Glen quite rightly pointed out that they used to be plum trees but no fruit had grown on them for sometime. About 150 feet in front of them the trees thicken and seeing pass them was difficult. Form this blackness out rode 3 skeletons on skeletal horse back all holding longbows and a Wight sat upon large decaying wolf. The Wight spoke to the party as if he was right in front of them and not 50 yards away and said
“Are you lost strangers?”
Vicrael being his over zealously courageous self advised the wight that they were in search of Silverkin Mansion, and that they wanted to pass. After a few retorts back and forth the wight said to his companions “Kill them we have enough for now, I will warn our Lord”, as he rode off back through the orchard.

Initiative is rolled


Hogar and Diefenbaker, who were stealthily moving though the foliage instead of using the tracks acted first and moved into a closer position behind a rock. Rodney who was not at all fazed by the undead before him headed straight up the tracks to confront the skeletons and fired off a magic missile, somewhat erratic behaviour for a controller. Each of the archers shot an arrow towards Rodney thankfully for him only one hit. The rest of the party then moved up behind, with all but Vicrael out of range they either advanced further to strengthen their defences. Vic did get a shot off against one of the archers and jinxed him with his arcane words. The archers then circled behind the trees for cover while waiting for the party to act. The party advanced closer and Hogar from his position within the tress managed to designate a horse as he quarry and shot a couple of arrows its way. Glen charges behind the trees and holds one of the mounted archers back with a series of blows. But the other slips past him, arcs around the party and targets Vicrael with two arrows, both of which hit and leave the Lord in a bloodied state. 


The party quickly saw that the steeds were giving the archers a big edge and with all the horses in the open began to focus their attacks on them. Eligos transformed herself into her guardian form and destroyed a horse with the help of Hogar's bow, Minron aided by Rodney's scorching bursts took out the second and Glen almost single hand killed the third. With the arches fallen from their steeds and nearly all bloodied they took a few finals shots at Glen, Eligos and Minron but to no prevail and soon were reduced to piles of bone.

Hogar took a quick look around the area while the rest of the party dressed their wounds. He found three gems in the satchels worth a total of 280 gp. 


DM Points

Monsters: 3x Skeleton Steeds (level 3 skirmishers) & 3 x Skeleton Archers (level 3 artillery).  900xp - Level 3 encounter

Map: H1 Keep on the shadow fell "Road Map"

This encounter originally was going to use the Wolf pack template, but as I had some mounted skeletons on skeleton horses I wanted to use these models at some point in the adventure. Also wanted to see how mounted combat worked as this is something as a group we had not tried before so it would give the party a new challenge.

The mounted monsters worked really well, having artillery mounted on skirmishers gave the archers lots of mobility, being able to move 8 squares and shift 8 without provoking an opportunity attacks made the marks of the defenders, of which we have 3, a lots less powerful. Also it gives the archers a good way to move to advantages positions to use their encounter powers, as our Bard found out! But as soon as the mount was killed the archers, which had lots of freedom, were left isolated and were very easy to pick off. It was good having all the monsters the same for this encounter as I wanted the first encounter to be quick as we had done a lots of role-playing at the start of the session as characters had switched over. But if I were to use mounts again I would mix them up with some soldiers or brutes to act as a foil. I think putting an elite on a mount would also work really well. Also having the level of this encounter 1 less than the party meant that spending the xp on the steeds meant only three attacks per round for the monsters, so not a great damage output.
 


Wednesday 9 March 2011

The Switch Over


This week’s season had a new location in both game terms and real terms. After missing a week due to new jobs and friends visits the party were very keen to play this week and as myself and Bethany were in Bristol on Friday night we moved the gaming season to Sunday. This meant we were playing after Sunday lunch at the in laws. Also as the party has conquered the Keep they were looking for a new adventure.

As we had played through the published adventure H1: Keep on the Shadowfell the logical thing would be to move to H2: Thunderspire Labyrinth. I could have just retired Eric, Bob and Frieda and explained that the characters meet some new adventurers in the tavern and sent them packing to Thunderspire Mountain, but this did give me a chance to write a mini-adventure to explain the party switch over. As a DM this gives me a change to see how the templates for encounters work in practise.

I decided quite early on that I would hook the party by kidnapping the “old” adventures and that there would be a theme of undead in the adventure, mainly due to having an entire Warhammer undead army. This helped focus my selection of monsters as originally I had every monster on the monster builder available. I will go into more detail of each encounter and how I built them as the party completes them.

We last left the adventures outside the keep’s ruins having just closed the shadow rift. After a quick scout around the area the party headed back to Winterhaven to a hero’s reception. Lord Padraig regaled at the feat that the party had accomplished and invited the whole party dine with him, his wife and children in the manor house. But he had to quickly excuse himself as in the excitement of the party returning that he had forgotten he was on guard watch this evening due to the shortage of soldiers in the town. The thought of a goose and all the trimmings seems to divert the party’s attention away from why the Lord was being a lackey for the evening so this point did not come to light until later.

Over dinner Bob, being his over friendly self, and seeing an opportunity as the Lord was otherwise engaged tried his luck with Lady Padraig.





Almost as soon as his best chat up line had left his lips Lady Padraig cast a baleful look upon Bob, forcing him to cower before her. Bob dared not approach her again that evening and focused on his wine, something one two many of the party also did. By the time the party retired to bed Frieda, Eric, Eligos and Bob were all very drunk. With only two rooms free at the manor house the party bunked together Eligos, Glen and Rodney in one room and Bob, Eric and Frieda in the other.

During the night Rodney was awoken by the sound of glass shattering, unsure what had broken the glass he sent his trusted rat, Hawkeye, to investigate. When Hawkeye failed to return he woke Glen and Eligos from there deep sleep. The adventurers found that the other room had been ransacked; the window had been smashed from the outside and the other half of the party and their belongings were gone. In there place they found two vampire spawn; one with a dagger in his chest and the other hit with a radiant blast. Out of the window Rodney saw in the darkness a Vampire mounted on a skeletal steed, a Wight on what seemed to be a wolf also handful of flying zombies. Across the back of each mount lay black sacks, Rodney deducted that these must be his follow adventurers.

Glen at this point was quite happy to go back to bed and sleep off the ale and goose he had consumed, but with a little encouragement he went to fetch Lord Padraig.

When Padraig entered the room he recoiled in horror at the scene before him, he could not offer enough apologies to the party as not only had the party been hijacked in his home but also while he was on guard. He then noticed that one of the vampire spawn was one of the town guards. He then went on to explain to the party that people from the nearby farms had been mysteriously disappearing and that over the past couple of days two of the towns guards had also vanished. He called for Valthrun, the town’s sage, to cast his wise old eyes over the transformed townsman. Valthrun was unsure of what magic was a work so returned to his tower to scour through scroll to try and find an answer. Not knowing where the Undead were heading and unable to chase mounted foes the remaining party members retired to bed to wait for news from Valthrun.

The next morning Valthrun had found a scroll which read:

Dark Gift of the Undying

To be performed between twilight and daybreak
Quench blood of rite subject and have subject quench yours until they passed over
Bury subject in unhallowed shallow grave
Commence prayer and mantra to Orcus until daybreak draws nearer more so than twilight dwindles
At the following sunset a Vampire lord will arise
Ritual will leave you weakened for days after completion

Realising their companions were in grave danger and that the three of them would not be enough to overpower the undead body snatchers they asked the Lord if he had any men willing to help them. The Lord did not have any of his own men to spare as they were already down to the bare minimal but he had called for a party to investigate the disappearances a few days ago as he did not know if the party would ever return from the keep. He knew little about these adventurers, the only information he had was that they were recommended to him from Faren Markelhay, the Lord
Warden of the town of Fallcrest. They were due to arrive at Wrafton’s Inn within the next couple of hours, so the party went into the Inn to see if anyone else had any information and to wait for the would be adventures.



The inn was fairly quite as it was still quite early, but as usual Eilian the Old was in attendance. The party asked if he had heard anything about the disappearances in the area, he had heard that there had been some rumours about increased activity around the Silverkin Mason which he thought was odd as no one had been seen in the Silverkin estate since Jacob Silverkin returned home to find that all of his family had left or died including his two sons. He also showed the party where the Silverkin estate was on their map.

Shortly after a dashing looking half-elf walked into the inn, he pulled down his rain soaked hood to revel long golden hair. Salvana’s steely demeanour seemed to melt away as the half-elf spoke to her, she pointed giddily over to the table where the party sat and the half-elf approached.

“Salutations! I am Lord Vicrael of Feradirn, commander of the Praetorium Corvax, how may I be of assistance to you friends”. Came the pompous greeting from Vicrael, and the rest of the conversation followed in a similar vein. He asked the party about the keep and discovered that is was not just a Goblin lair as he had first thought but was in fact the site of great evil. Keen to find out more, as he felt it would be key to his missions of ridding the vale of Orcus’ minions, he agreed to help the party in finding Bob, Eric and Frieda as he felt they would be the best party members to fully explain the keep and the shadow rift to him. He then signalled outside with a loud whistle, a half-orc then walked into the inn, this was meet with gasps, but these were nothing compared to the astonishment that meet his companion. The next figure though the door was a 7’2 Minotaur that had to stoop the whole time while in the inn. These two were Lord Vicrael’s travelling companions, Hogar the Half-Orc ranger and Minron a Cleric/Fighter Minotaur. Hogar demanded to know why the party had not captured Kalarel, as he would have, instead of killing him, Glen who had been very quite while Vicrael spoke, sharply replied if we had waited for you the whole vale would be overrun with undead. Vicrael diplomatically stepped into and moved the conversation back to the rescue plan.





Thursday 3 March 2011

Intermission




This week due to Emma getting a new job, and Sarah having friends over, we postponed the main adventure. Also as three of the characters will be changing in the upcoming weeks (Frieda to Hogar, Bob to Pieter and Eric to Minron) this gave us a chance to complete everyone’s back stories and get all the relevant miniature painted. So instead of progressing from the keep to the next adventure I ran two short encounters from Dungeon Delve. This gave Rich the chance to try out Minron (AKA Medium Ron) the Minotaur Hybrid Fighter/Cleric for the first time and Garry the chance to play test his updated version of Hogar. I decided to use the level 3 encounters as there were only 4 characters at level 4 instead of the normal 6 party members and it contained Orcs instead of Gnolls, so would give Garry and myself a chance to see how powerful Hogar’s extra 10% chance of crit’ing Orcs is going to be.  
A force of orcs has taken over a small hilltop keep. So a newly formed mini party of Rodney, Glen, Minron, Hogar and Hogar’s hunting Wolf Diefenbaker are engaged by the local lord to rid his home of the intruders. Fortunately for the party, the keep’s main doors are still damaged from when the orcs took possession, and entry is relatively easy. Unfortunately, the orcs are determined to stay. The party made there way into the keep and up the spiral stairs to the 1st level and are meet by a solid metal double door. Bravely Minron pushes open both doors to revel two glowing beetles provide light in the room, highlighting several cages and two orcs at the rear of the room is in shadow. Quickest to act is Hogar, who look around the room and noticed that it is indeed a room, ordered Diefenbaker to engage the first fire beetle as he advanced into the room and shoots a couple of arrows at the orcs while standing against the eastern wall. Minron, Rodney and Glen each moved in to tackle the beetles with melee and close burst attacks, the beetles hit back with a few effective close bursts of their own before succumbing to a some very effective sweeping blow and finished off by Rodney crit’ing with his Thunderwave.

The party also quickly dispatched the two orcs at the rear with ease. This left one orc who had been throwing hand axes at the party from an arrow slit. Glen moved to the bottom of the stairs then charge the orcs, Glen was very hastily joined by Rodney who shifted 12 squares to get close to the orcs and blasted him with his burning hands, but even before Minron could make his way up the stairs Hogar had finished the last orc off with a couple of arrows.

The party searched the room but found nothing other than a dead half elf in one of the cages. So moved though the double doors at the end of the room.

As the entered the second room they saw a cauldron in the middle of the room bubbles atop a blazing fire, and a banquet table to the right covered in leftover food and wine. Many orcs stand around the room, snarling and ready for battle. A quick monster check revealed that one of the orcs bar one were minions.

As Hogar was quickest to act once again he can Diefenbaker moved into the room and shot at couple of minions, the first arrow savagely taking an orc down by piecing his skull with precision, so excited by this he quickly pulled another arrow from his quiver and tried to load his bow only to mis-draw and catch his own face with the string. Rodney then entered the room and unleashed his burning hands taking out four of the orcs in one action. As burning orcs flesh filled the air Glen charged at the Orc berserker, the orcs was nearly in reach of Glen’s Urgrosh when he noticed that the floor textures had changed, he pulled up his run with just enough time to see Timber covered with, dropping into a 10-foot-deep pit. Clearly annoyed that Glen had not fallen for his trap the berserker move around the pit to entangle axes with Glen. Hogar, still picking off minions with his bow almost at will, ordered Diefenbaker to leap the pit and move into a position behind the berserker to aid Glen. This created an opening for the dwarf to cripple the Berserker with a crushing blow.

Over the other side of the room Rodney and Minron were battling with the rest of the minions, distracted by the hoard of orcs they did not notice a Orc shaman leap out of a cupboard at the side of the room. If this did not deter them the huge chaotic hammer that appeared behind them sure did as it swung and knocker both adventures to the floor. While Minron lay there hapless the shaman looked deep into his soul to show the rest of the orcs where his weaknesses were. This caused the soft points of his amour to glow a bright blue. Minions then swung axes and swords at Minron targeting his weak points time after time, this caused Minron who by now had got to his feet to bellow a bloodied rage and lash out at the closes orcs. As Rodney and Minron fought back carving though the minions each one gave a blood curdling roar and a final swing of their weapon before dropping to the floor, which started to take their toll on Minron. These wounds were nothing a bit of true Minotaur git and a healing word couldn’t fix though and soon Rodney and Minron stood with a pile of orc minions around them.

Still raged Minron charged at the shaman, now the only monster in the room, his horns caught the shaman squarely in the chest knocking him to the many feet backwards and leaving him on the floor. This gave Glen’s axe a easy opening to hit the shaman as he lay prone taking the shaman to a bloodied state. Hogar seeing that he shaman was clinging to life activated his flesh grinding sword, which cut through the orcs hide armour like butter, and deal a clean hit with his hunt’s end.

Outcome – Hunt’s end is not as good as it first looked due to only being able to target bloodied enemies; Minron is good but lacks a few hit points due to being a Hybrid, Glen’s encounter powers deal a lot of damage, Rodney owns minions. But most importantly for me Dungeon Delve is a great backup if I ever need to create an encounter quickly.