So my group has played three sessions thus far, and I've racked up quite the killcount. I was worried that the scripted encounters weren't quite hard enough for my group, but the Old Sycamore at level one was more than enough proof that this was not the case.
SESSION ONE
Name: Ivan
Race: Dwarf
Classes/levels: Ranger/1
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: The Old Sycamore
Catalyst: Being a bit too hasty when confronting Grabbles and Tickleback
The Gory Details: . Ivan had spotted the entrance to the old tree and the party had climbed into the Old Sycamore, all fresh and level one. Of course, encountering the mites first the party felt fairly confident, they cleaved through them and the centipedes from the hatchery with little trouble. Ivan had chosen fey as his favored enemies, so naturally had a distaste for the mites which only fuelled the carnage. They managed to sneak up on Grabbles in a war council with some other high ranking mites, and Ivan felt it his duty to cleanse the world of the "nasty magical beasties" he so hated. So he charged around the corner screaming, ruining the party's element of surprise. Grabbles was quickly shot off of the top of Tickleback from a crit by the rogue, but Tickleback continued fighting and soon had the ranger within his jaws, sucking him dry. The party managed to kill Tickleback, but not before Tickleback had drained poor Ivan dry, leaving a husk of the ranger.
Name: Johan Sparta
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter/1
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: The Old Sycamore
Catalyst: Trying to cover the parties retreat.
The Gory Details: After the party killed Tickleback, mourned for the loss of Ivan and looted the room, they decided to clear the Old Sycamore of anything living, stating that they never wanted to have to come to the tree again. It was all well and good until they reached the chasm. Ashram, the parties rogue, spotted the false handholds the mites had created in the pass across. He did not notice the 25 foot long centipede. It, however, noticed him. The parties sorcerer, Rholig, tried to cast Hypnotize on the bug, not realizing that it was immune to such a spell, and the bug retaliated by making Rholig drop into negative hp. Ashram the rogue quickly retrieved the sorcerer, taking an attack of opportunity to try and retrieve Rholig. Only due to rolling minimum damage did the Rogue keep standing. Johan felt it was his duty to ensure the rogue and sorcerer escaped, so blocked the path of the centipede, ready to attack if it came at him. It did come at him, and proceeded to bite him in half. While the centipede feasted on the fighter's body the remaining members of the party quickly vacated the Sycamore and fled all the way back to Oleg's.
SESSION THREE
Name: Ashram, Nicolai, Father Buck
Race: Half-elf, Human and Human,
Classes/levels: Rogue/2, Cleric/2, Monk/1
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: Random encounter in the hex east of Bokken's Hut.
Catalyst: Trying to fight something they've had troubles with.
The Gory Details: When exploring the plains east of Bokken's Hut, I rolled up a random encounter. With a Giant Whiptail Centipede. Seeing as several members of the party were still reeling from their encounter with the Centipede the last time, I figured this time they'd be able to actually work together to kill it, or just all flee. The party seemed to have other ideas. While riding through a small wooded area as the rogue mapped everything out, only several seemed to realize that there was a snaking shadow coming from above. Looking up, they saw a creature they were perhaps too familiar with. Immediately Rholig the sorcerer took off on his horse, abandoning the party and choosing to watch the battle from a hill some hundred feet away. Ashram, having taken up the rear would not be able to quite ride far enough away without taking one attack from the creature, so instead chose to back up carefully. Chatros and Father Buck, the fighter and the monk, fled far enough to not be attacked but stayed close enough to regroup and assault the thing if it did manage to grab one party member. Nicolai the Cleric was the only one who noticed that Ashram was in trouble and decided to try and distract the creature by channeling negative energy. The centipede immediately took offense to this and climbed away from its perch in the tree it had been hiding in and clambered after Nicolai. It bit the horse he was riding on, knocking it down to the negatives and leaving Nicolai on foot against the huge centipede. Seeing that one member of the party would die if they did not come to assist, everyone but the sorcerer rushed to Nicolai's aid. It was in vain, as two rounds later the centipede had Nicolai at -11 hit points. Father Buck attempted to charge the creature and was eaten by an attack of opportunity. The beast then came after Ashram. Chatros the fighter attempted to aid by charging the creature, but he too went down to an attack of opportunity. What followed was a fight between Ashram, Ashram's horse and the centipede. The centipede, which at this point was heavily wounded, managed to take Ashram down, and miraculously the Heavy Warhorse that Ashram had paid for took the beast down. The only player who managed to stabilize was Chatros the fighter, and the other three died in the fields by bleeding out from their wounds.
Chatros did not live long though.
Name: Chatros
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Fighter/1
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: Lying unconscious next to his dead party.
Catalyst: Trusting an evil character to be his savior
The Gory Details: Rholig the sorcerer is a human from Outsea, where humans are second class citizens and looked down upon. Because of this, he had developed some distinctly opportunistic and racist ideals. Rholig, after watching the centipede drop from his hill some hundred feet in the distance, approached cautiously just in case the beast was still alive. Seeing the creature was in fact dead and the so were most of his fellow party members, Rholig managed to calm Ashram's horse and rob the rest of the party. This consisted of the loot from the hidden cache at the lightning struck tree, most everything from the Old Sycamore, The Sootscale Kobolds treasure (whom they had slaughtered in session two) and completed no less than four of the quests offered to them. The party was well-off, with every character with nearly 800 gold by this point and Rholig looted it all, loaded it up onto his and Ashram's horse and left. Before any of the looting happened though, he made sure to stab Chatros in the throat, just to tie up any loose ends.
HONORABLE MENTION
Name: Rholig
Race: Human
Classes/levels: Sorceror/2
Adventure: The Stolen Land
Location: Restov
Catalyst: Becoming filthy rich
The Gory Details: Rholig had just acquired more money than he had expected to ever see in his lifetime, and after seeing the gruesome end of quite a few people that had taken to adventuring with him, decided to retire in Restov. Rholig now operates a human-only tavern in Restov, called the Rolling Centipede Inn. The sign for this tavern is that of a giant centipede dwarfing what appears to be a half-elf, and about to eat the poor fool. With the money he has "acquired" he was able to successfully purchase several bouncers to keep the non-humans out and is now running a successful business in Restov.
