| Linguanthropos |
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First off, general thanks to all for the great ideas I have appropriated!
We had our first session Sunday and it went really well. Our group is pretty optimized, and there are 7 of them. And a 25 point buy. I know, I know, you're thinking I'm crazy. Maybe a little. We also have some custom races along with some higher-powered ones. Here is the party:
Human Gunslinger who will go into Warpriest after 4 levels
Anthropomorphic custom raccoon race modeled after Rocket, also Gunslinger
Aasimar cleric of Pharasma, more battle cleric with channel smite,etc.
Fetchling Rogue
Drow Ranger (wannabe Drizzt)
Half-construct Bloodrager who uses TWF and a cestus on each hand
And to further wreck the action economy... a Samsaran Necromancer!
Of course at level one the Necromancer isn't a big issue yet- he's a wizard and can only have one HD of undead under his control.
Needless to say, I'm ramping up the encounters. I started with the carriage ride as suggested in this forum. I told them the only carriage into Ravengro goes once a day and they all filtered in by initiative. There are a couple of newer players, so it was good to have a lot of role play in the opening.
Once on the carriage they were attacked by stirges (9 I think), but some of those were added on to teach the Gunslingers that making LOTS of noise in the middle of a forest isn't always a great idea. Of course the attack happened just as they were coming out of a narrow pass and onto a precarious curve with a cliff face on one side.
The raccoon jumped out the window and on top of the coach, saw the stirges nomming on the driver and the horses and ran back inside! The rogue decided to go out and have a look just as a low branch came by. He made his reflex save and ended up prone on top of the roof. Meanwhile, the PC's inside the coach were all wearing armor and/or not Dex-based so decided to cut their way through the roof. The rogue again made his save and avoided joining the Vienna Boys' Choir, but it made for a hilarious movie moment when the dagger poked through the canvas! They didn't really have much trouble with the stirges with both Gunslingers one-shotting them most of the time and the half-construct swatting them. Of course no one that could use the Ride or Handle Animal skills were in a position to reach the reins, so it was close. The cleric decided to climb out and help, failed his reflex save miserably, and ended up in the middle of the road. Luckily, they got the carriage stopped in the next round.
I had planned to do a modified Spectral Carriage haunt that would basically hit them with a bull rush into the trees, nothing too dangerous.
The funeral procession was about to be Diplomacized by the cleric when the Necromancer took offense and slapped Gibs across the face. They decided to take the full round to set the casket down and in the process two of them were knocked out- the first attack was a crit with a 2x4, I told the player that villager was named Jim.
They decided to go after the cache of ghostbusting equipment pretty quickly and met several zombies and skeletons (some with class levels) on the way. The Necromancer managed to control one and the fight was pretty quick. I threw in a fun bonus for him- a crawling hand! He liked it so much that I decided to let him reskin it as a familiar. I'm still debating the stat bonus he will get from it. Also, his character's name is Fette, so he named it Manos: The Hand of Fette!
They have researched two of the prisoners, and during this time I've been throwing creepy happenings in. The letters started the second night and I had the entire group do will saves a few times to make them nervous. The Gunslinger/Warpriest is married to the cleric and I decided to give her the nightmares and have her wake up with her name written in blood. Then when everyone came in to look it was gone, but she had blood on her hand. The player was actually getting a little creeped out, so I had TSM appear to her in a dream as he looked in life. He was very calm and did a decent Lecter, analyzing her name and said they would see each other soon.
We also use a Facebook group, so I changed the front page picture to her character name written in blood on a wall.
I haven't leveled them up, but plan to before they get into Harrowstone. The cleric has been itching to go since the second day but the wizard has kept him calm and convinced him to research first.
They also tracked Gibs back to his house after the third letter and brought the sheriff back with them. Next session he will freak out in the jail cell and someone else will be possessed soon.
I thought of another idea to mess with the channelers, both positive energy and to control. I'm going to have the Way plant a Yellow Musk Creeper near the town... and I was thinking of having some children find it first to give them their first moral dilemma- slaughter the "kids" when the parents are looking for them, or try to capture them and see if they can be saved.
I plan to introduce some Mi-Go as well, doing it like the 90's movie Mimic. They have all kinds of disguise bonuses, so I will have them use their wings like cloaks and look pretty human until you get up close. I probably won't have them fight one, but I want to get them thinking about the full scope of what's going on.
Anyway, sorry for the long post. It was a long session and easily the most fun I've had running anything!