RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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I ran the Blue Nixie assault tonight and my players totally surprised me. They did some great intel-gathering first, going off at huge tangents involving harbour personnel who aren't on the official payroll before going to work.
The Water Genasi barbarian used his carpentry skills to fit a handle under a wine barrel, marking the top with stencils copied from an inn to read WINE in huge letters. He swam up to the Nixie with this thing under water and, approaching in the direction the tide was flowing, let it come to the surface and bonk the side.
Meanwhile the rest of the party approached from the other side in a camouflaged rowing boat pushed by a Dire Otter (don't ask!).
They sneaked (all successfully) onto the floating dock raft thing and two got on board via a grappling hook in the rigging before the alarm was sounded.
The bad guys were caught with their crossbows on the ground and boathooks in hand and quickly subdued or killed. One bullrushed the water genasi barbarian into the sea and regretted that instantly. The other escapees were swiftly intercepted by the otter.
By the time order was given to burn the hold, the halfling spellthief was in the kitchen and able to grab a bucket of water. This happened almost at the same time as the wizard (who had delayed) sprayed the flames through the grill on deck with a Ray of Frost turned into a cone through the inventive use of action points (I liked the idea so much I let it go).
The angry rhagodessa tore the last bandit woman into pieces before the halflings eyes, and she closed the door and ran upstairs.
The wizard and spellthief then cast multiple Dazes at the rhagodessa while the two barbarians threw the cage back over it and stacked barrels on it - up to the ceiling.
Bingo!
Result: overwhelming party victory! Soller Vark and his woman both captured and unconscious, all the thugs but one dead, the other captured, and the rhagodessa captured! One character had taken 2 points of damage.
Any other DM fail so miserably with this supposedly lethal encounter? ;)
I guess I don't need to go easy on them under Parrot Island!
Nicely done!
With my group it tore the biggest fighter in my group in half on the Blue Nixie. But then in the Lotus Dragon Area they used the rhagodessa on a chain to rack up an impressive body count. (Killed Four thieves, the bugbear and hurt guttugger...) But that one is easy to "capture"; to do it on the Nixie, that is impressive...
My party thinks the rhagodessa on the Blue Nixie was a push over. The creature went down in one blow. the blow was a critical hit from a 1/2 orc with a 20 STR wielding a large size maul two handed (Yes he takes the -2 to hit, he likes it that way). They let Solar go. He was the 1/2 orc's former boss. the 1/2 orc smashed him and let Solar no he had a "new boss". Then he let him go.
I really thought the rhagodessa was going to work the party but oh well. I hope this makes them over confident when they run into the creature in the Lotus Dragon lair. But then again they'll be at least second level by then.
I ran the Blue Nixie assault tonight and my players totally surprised me. They did some great intel-gathering first, going off at huge tangents involving harbour personnel who aren't on the official payroll before going to work.
The Water Genasi barbarian used his carpentry skills to fit a handle under a wine barrel, marking the top with stencils copied from an inn to read WINE in huge letters. He swam up to the Nixie with this thing under water and, approaching in the direction the tide was flowing, let it come to the surface and bonk the side.
Meanwhile the rest of the party approached from the other side in a camouflaged rowing boat pushed by a Dire Otter (don't ask!).
They sneaked (all successfully) onto the floating dock raft thing and two got on board via a grappling hook in the rigging before the alarm was sounded.
The bad guys were caught with their crossbows on the ground and boathooks in hand and quickly subdued or killed. One bullrushed the water genasi barbarian into the sea and regretted that instantly. The other escapees were swiftly intercepted by the otter.
By the time order was given to burn the hold, the halfling spellthief was in the kitchen and able to grab a bucket of water. This happened almost at the same time as the wizard (who had delayed) sprayed the flames through the grill on deck with a Ray of Frost turned into a cone through the inventive use of action points (I liked the idea so much I let it go).
The angry rhagodessa tore the last bandit woman into pieces before the halflings eyes, and she closed the door and ran upstairs.
The wizard and spellthief then cast multiple Dazes at the rhagodessa while the two barbarians threw the cage back over it and stacked barrels on it - up to the ceiling.
Bingo!
Result: overwhelming party victory! Soller Vark and his woman both captured and unconscious, all the thugs but one dead, the other captured, and the rhagodessa captured! One character had taken 2 points of damage.
Any other DM fail so miserably with this supposedly lethal...
WOW i was impressed with my players. they used obscure mist to cover there boarding. The guys on watched failed to see the approaching boat until it was next to the blue nixie. They used obscure mist to cover there boarding. Those watching on the deck of the Blue nixie only saw a strange fog roll atop the deck then two warriors and a monk come busting out of the fog to attack. In less than 5 rounds, 1 of the thugs was dead, one was captured, the rest including Solar Vark and his wench were allowed to ump ship and did.
Anyway I remember being proud of them for being so clever and successful. But your guys win.
Indeed, the very first encounter offers a surprising amount of flexibility in how it can be handled. My players tried to be diplomatic/authoritative without a leg to stand on...thus leading to brutal combat. (The rhagodessa dropped one player, almost ending his career in STAP before it started.) I'm always interested in hearing how this fight might have gone down.
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My party got a little inventive as well - they hung a dead thug from the block and tackle, and dangled it down into the hold to try and get the Rhadogessa out for shooting at - they succeeded in doing so. It grabbed the body, they let go... and it dragged the body back into the hold. And everyone with a readied action missed.
Eventually they got out and just fought it - it grabbed the ranger, and the DM proceeded to throw '1's on every roll for the Rhadogessa until it died.
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Eventually they got out and just fought it - it grabbed the ranger, and the DM proceeded to throw '1's on every roll for the Rhadogessa until it died.
yeah that was my group... the swordsage was at 2hp, at the end by going toe to toe with it, and it had 4 critical misses in the fight, dazing itself 2 times and getting it's mandibles stuck in a crate cage once, and getting distracted by loud monkeies, and tearing through the cage to eat them (which led to 3 AOO which finally took it down - 12 rounds of combat no one rolled above a 3 in 7 of them).
My party rogue, for reasons not known, let it out of the hold in the towards the end of the big fight (move action to open the hold, then move action to climb into the rigging, then free action to laugh at the rest of the PCs).
It tore the fighter a new one, but the swashbuckler cut some ropes to drop sail on deck. Everyone but the Rhagadosha and the *grappled* fighter made a reflex save to dive out of the way. It was then a simple matter to tie it up.
It was definately NOT a simple matter to get the pissed-off fighter free. The rogue would not come down from the rigging for quite a while.