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(This is the truncated version, with added dialog bits, of the information doled out prior to character generation for a STAP campaign that should begin within the next two weekends.)
" A Dummies' Guide to the Savage Tide Adventure Path "
" Listen up you primitive screwheads!! You're all fresh and shiny from your apprenticeships and alleyways and eggshells and mercenary regimental guard duties. That's nice and cute and furry - and will get your sorry butts fragged quicker than a mind flayer snacking on an inattentive gold dragon's noggin!!
" In order to survive, I have been tasked with given you pre-packaged self-propelled field rations enough information to maybe not die fifty feet outside the town gates. Or, in some parts of town, fifty feet outside the front door of the local bar. So, since someone asked me all nice and purty-like, I'm givin' you chowderheads the following tidbits of advice.
" Lesson #1: Do not assume. If you cannot figure this one out, well ... you are monster kibble waiting to happen.
" Lesson #2: Carry a variety of weapons. Not counting whatever your fancy shmancy nancy 'weapon of choice' is, carrying just one weapon is a surefire ticket to getting the tag 'CHOW' tattooed on your forehead. Since most of you chowderheads are at least proficient with the simpler weapons, we'll stick to what almost all of you know how to use without stabbing yourself in the foot.
" Always, always carry a dagger. If nothing else, that is what you probably eat with. In a pinch, a dagger is a throwable weapon at close quarters and that dagger may be what keeps you from finding out what the inside of a gullet looks like.
" Get - at a minimum a club, or some other wooden bludgeoning weapon. A club is free, isn't too too heavy and can - like a dagger - also be thrown. They are your best weapon of last resort in melee when your pappy's fancy sword is scraping off the ribcage of a skeleton or turning into rusty flakes from some spell. And, they are free.
" Obviously, just about all of you will have a primary melee weapon you fancy. Presuming you are not familiar with a Martial Weapon, you might wish to take a close look at either the morning star or the old peasant standby, the spear. The former does two of the three basic damage types, and can take advantage of a reasonably strong person when swung two-handed. Not a bad way to finish a downed foe. The spear is cheap, can be thrown and can be set to receive a charge.
" Now, here is the lesson I do not generally see ever being learned. Carry 2 to 4 javelins for throwing as a group. That's right - all of you can probably chuck a javelin, so all of you should be packing some. It is better to go to loot your foes' corpses than it is to have to spend perfectly good cure spells and healers' kits to repair damage you could have avoided.
" Lastly, everyone should carry a projectile weapon. Barring a rash of impoverished characters, this should be the venerable light crossbow. Packing a reasonably accurate range increment, capable of being locked and loaded as you trail behind your point-snack, this gives your entire party the capability of perforating foes as they come to you. And for the love of the gawds, carry BOLTS too ... lugging around a crossbow does you no good if you don't have any ammunition.
" You will not always have a full compliment of spells and magical dooflichies available to you with which to wreck havoc and kill things. That is where the weapons come in. Unless you or your foes break them, weapons can always kill things that want to kill you.
" Lesson #3: Basic Tactics. Not counting cramped underground environments, you chowderheads are likely to encounter significant amounts of hostiles at a surprising distance. Unless you all have pointy ears, it is likely you have one or maybe two real archers in the team and the rest of you hopefully are toting light crossbows as mentioned above. Unless there is a really, really pressing reason, do not ever charge to engage your foes unless there is no alternative. Let them come to you. Fill them full of crossbow bolts and arrows. When they get a bit closer, chuck those javelins I told you to get and fill them with those too. Never assume your foes will walk to you. You may find yourselves having no terrain that is conducive to engaging in melee, so you will be forced into a shooting duel. Other times of course your bows and crossbows will be more of a hindrance than a help. Adjust, adapt and think.
" Lesson #4: Gear load management. Just because you can afford everything in the general store, the smithys and the jewellers store does not mean you should carry everything. Strive to keep your gear to as light a load as you can. The trick, of course, is bringing enough gear to survive and thrive but not so much gear that a snail can chase you down and barf on your face. Basic gear is essential. Rope, a hammer, a few spikes, a crowbar, one or more light sources, a bedroll to sleep on, a spare change of clothes, and at least two sacks to carry loot or you buddy's head back out in are crucial. Two waterskins and food are also a really good idea unless you plan to drink whatever water you can find while subsisting on your own toe fungus.
" Lesson #5: Those who learn to run away can come back and kill things to take thier stuff later. Do not be afraid to run away when the odds are pretty clearly not in your favor. As a subset of this lesson, do not charge in blindy and hope you won't get your head lopped off. Otherwise, your buddies will probably be taking your head back in a sack.
" Lesson #6: You are all from a seaport and have spent time crewing and otherwise making yourselves useful on boats and ships. I rather suspect this knowledge will make the difference between whether you come back as heroes or whether you come back at all. [At this point, this is when the players find out that thier characters receive bonus ranks in Profession (sailor) in accordance with thier class as well as bonus ranks in either Craft or Knowledge. The first caps at 12 ranks, the latter is indefinite.]
" Lesson #7: There are a number of so-called affiliations available to you should you be so inclined. Some times these guys actually know what they are talking about. Part of this concept also includes such novelties as becoming a regular patron of a church of your choice of patron gawd, or for the heathens, even amongst the 'domains'. Over time, and with proper 'tithing', the divine affiliations even teach you a few nifty abilities than can make the difference between what brand of kibble you are.
" Lesson #8: Practice, practice, practice. Develope teamwork drills. [Referring to the Teamwork Benefits from PHB 2.] You never know when you chowderheads' teamwork will figure out that something bad is behind that door or that there is a secret door none of you would have otherwise singly been able to find. Do not forget to hone a trick or two that plays up to your own unique strengths. [Referring to the skill tricks from Complete Scoundrel.] Finally, get your team's spiritual leader(s) to pow-wow about a companion spirit that shores up your weakest or most feared area. [Again, referring to the Companion Spirits from PHB 2.] The more of these kinds of things you chowderheads learn how to do, the likelier it is you will get to die of old age.
" Lesson #9: Secret intelligence that is way above your non-existent divine rank gives us some vague idea of the kinds of threats you will be facing. " [This is where they are informed of the following recommended skill bonuses to be had. The physical ones listed are the bonuses recommended after armor check penalties are accounted for.
Balance at +5 / Climb at +10 / Swim at +5 / Craft (carpentry) at a +10 or so / Profession (sailor) at about a +15 / Knowledge (geography) at a +12 or better by at least one character / 5 or more ranks in each of the following additional Knowledge skills : arcane, local, nature, nobility & royalty, religion and the planes / Survival at about a +10 / Search at about a +10. The trapfinder/lockpicker will need about a +20 to Open Locks. The 'face' will need about a +15 Diplomacy bonus as well as about a +10 Gather Information. Spell-lobbers will want at least some modicum of Spellcraft.
Obviously, it is not possible to have all of these skills at the higher bonuses at 1st level. But it is a clue to the players to keep in mind the kinds of things they can be expecting to have to deal with.]]
" Lesson #10: Do not let your melee guys get more than a simple move again ahead of the cleric or curative spellcasters. If you chowderheads do go charging off pell mell in order to wade into combat with a pack of little toothy goblins - and then you get your legs hacked off - the odds are it is because you charged in and left the healers too far behind to do your reckless butt any good. Think about your spacing and reach. Heck, form a shield wall with the spellhuckers packing longspears - which double nicely as 10 ft poles - jabbing the bad guys in front of you. It can prove surprisingly effective.
" That's all - no get out of my sight! I'd like a pleasant memory to go to sleep with tonight. "
Ah Bliss. I`ll be passing that on to my own equipment-challenged players. Cheers Turin.
Ah Bliss. I`ll be passing that on to my own equipment-challenged players. Cheers Turin.
I hope that this does indeed benefit your equippage-challenged players. If nothing else, having kobolds do to them the very things outlined above (shield-and-spear walls, peppering with crossbow fire followed by javelins as the players close) should be an eye-opener.
I rather suspect that the kobolds would attempt to secure the higher ground advantage whenever possible for thier shield-and-spear wall. Not to mention skirmishers who fan out onto thier flanks, awaiting a certain code phrase in Draconic, to perform a half-volley of javelins while thier other half number charges or double-moves in to achieve tactical superiority through flanking and aid-other actions to score hits.Once the initial group closes, the remaining skirmishers would either hold fire or close in behind with kobold-sized longspears with which to skewer the self-propelled field rations in question from behind that skirmish line.
If you can secure a copy of the Red Hand of Doom, there are a healthy number of simple in-game tactical sidebars relating nicely how to maul, mutilate and mangle the player characters - especially the ones who get cocky - with run-of-the-mill humanoids. After a round or two of peppering, the kobolds will certainly adjust thier fire to start whittling down thier foes, especially the ones who waggle thier fingers and say funny words which result in evocations or sleep spells wreaking havoc in the kobold ranks. Those kobolds still alive and in melee with party members will be very very quick to gang up on one or maybe two choice foes in an effort to drop them as fast as thier little scaly hides can manage. Once the PC's are downed, the kobolds can liesurely dispatch them or truss them up and drag them off to become long pork BBQ for that evening's menu.
I rather fondly remember a small group of nameless goblins kicking PC kiester under similar direction a few years ago. One of those goblins wound up earning a name (and more than a few levels from the xp he kept earning fragging careless PC's) before they finally caught up to him and horribly tortured him to death during a ghoul touch spell.
Of course, his undead spirit came to haunt them a little while later...
There were a number of good dragon amgazine articles published along similar lines in the early ninties -and then there was that wonderful kobolf fuled mayhem in Dragon Mountain for AD&D.
But I intend to keep it as a simple striaghtforward ambush with perhaps a dead fall or two and sheer cliff walls the keep the pcs from excaping. I want them to realise that their the ones at fault here, not me for making things too hard. They`ve already learned the advantage of reach. Now I`m gonna demonstrate why one missile weapon (used by the party Bard) and no offensive spellcaster in a party of five is hardly a smart move. Luckily, the group only meets for the occasional one off adventure. So its not really a campign as such. So if I get a TPK using only a half dozen 1/2 Cr kobols with less hit points between them than a first level barbarian, I expect they`ll finally get the message.
The tradgedy is that, part from being absolutely useless when it comes to tactics, their an excellent group of very good reolplayers. Check on my post on the Pig Village scenario I ran in the one-liners post and youll see how much fun we have. I just wish theyd use their brains more so they weren`t so squishy!
LOL - I do indeed recall your pig village mayhem, funny funny post.
At this point, I'm looking at probably six players for " Savage Tide Campaign Numero Uno ".
So far, I'm hearing about some kind of Incarnum-based character, a monk (with Vow of Poverty I believe), a cloistered cleric who's gunning for mystic theurge and all the item creation feats, an elven wizard ... only leaves maybe 2 characters left, and no real trapfinder/lockpicker proposed thus far.
Might only have 5 for the first sessions, so this will definitely get messy ... er, interesting.
Frankly, a party entirely comprised of elves would be pretty devastating. With every character packing at level 1 shortswords and shortbows (at the least) and some decent equippage and feat selections (Quick Draw anyone), they will be able to wreak havoc and not have to worry overmuch about quirky weapons selections if/when the bodies start flopping to the ground.
At the mid-levels, we're looking at longswords, ALL the characters packing composite longbows built to STR and at a minimum all masterwork gear. (Liberal application of magic weapon/greater magic weapon spells - as well as magic vestment for armor - goes a long way to picking up the slack on enhancement bonuses. So the decisions instead come from weapon and armor materials at the low to early mid-levels. Plus alchemical goodies.)
However, I rather doubt they'll go that route, so I'm pretty sure we'll see a plethora of humans - and maybe one or two pointy ears - getting eaten in the first adventure. Tsk tsk.
Fellow readers, please accept a humble Killer GM's recommendation of this delightful thread and it's immensely talented author. I will be a player in Turin's second group of Savage Tide (not this group), yet to come, and he'll likely bar me from reading this thread much further, so I shan't likely be enjoying it with you, henceforth. Please enjoy it in my stead...
Fellow readers, please accept a humble Killer GM's recommendation of this delightful thread and it's immensely talented author. I will be a player in Turin's second group of Savage Tide (not this group), yet to come, and he'll likely bar me from reading this thread much further, so I shan't likely be enjoying it with you, henceforth. Please enjoy it in my stead...
Alas Sir Al of N, 'twould probably be a correct enough appraisal to not peruse the journal as the messy demises start to mount.
Then again, one never knows ... at least 2 1/2 nominally functional brains are at the table ... ^_^
Excellent news, gentle readers. As of this point, the first session of your humble madman's first Savage Tide campaign is slated to begin this Sunday with a total roster of 5 out of a possible 8 player characters.
Tonight all but 3 participants will be in attendance to generate character attributes (I want to watch them being generated).
As a bit of advanced warning for the budding fan club, I have implemented a few house rules, which I will recap here for your perusal.
1. As per the write up in the back of the Shackled City, character ability scores will be generated rolling 3 sets of ability scores and picking the most appealing set. In the case of the adventure path, I will have them each roll 3 such sets, in order to have thier initial character as well as thier first 2 replacement characters' ability score sets pre-generated. I will record the replacement's ability scores in a folder to dole out at when the time comes for the new bodies to enter play. This rule is in use in Allen Stewart's Age of Worms campaign, and it has done little to stem the steady accumulation of body bags in his campaign... :)
1a. As an addition, characters may elect to take 1 or 2 Flaws from Unearthed Arcana at 1st level.
2. I have elected to add bonus ranks in Profession (sailor) as well as Craft and/or Knowledge (of thier choice) to all starting characters. This is with the intent of permitting the plethora of NPCs on the characters' ship later on in the game to be eaten by assorted monsters without necessarily compromising the group's ability to go anywhere. (Well, as long as they do not get eaten as well ...)
3. I have slightly modified item creation rules for characters who select those feats. One player presently seems determined to be the group's dedicated item crafter, and given the general lack of large cities at the group's disposal throughout the adventure path, this strikes me as the best method to accomodate the party's gear improvements.
4. Should all PCs be generated as natives of Sasserine (and I do mean all), they receive a district feat of thier choice as a bonus feat at character creation. Later on of course, this will not prove to be available for replacement characters.
5. To encourage player characters to minimize thier chances of drowning at 1st level as well as to somewhat better fit in to the sword n sandal-ish approach of the early part of the campaign, I have implemented a few OGL feats:
5a. Versatile - choose 2 cross-class skills to be considered as class skills for all character levels.
5b. Legendary - should I witness ability scores generated at a 13 or better for all six ability scores, that character may elect to choose this feat at 1st level. Doing so improves the rate of ability score advancement from +1 pt per 4 levels to +1 pt per 3 levels.
5c. Unarmored Defense Proficiency / Focus / Specialization / Mastery:
By cashiering one or more armor and shield proficiency feats, these may be acquired in thier stead. Like the class feature derived bonus to AC, these feats do not work if wearing body armor or a shield.
UDProf costs 1 armor feat, gives +1 dodge bonus to AC at 1st level, improving +1 more per 5 character levels, capping at a +5 bonus at 20th.
UDFocus costs 2 armor feats, +2 at 1st, +1/4 lvls, cap at +7 at 20th.
UDSpec costs 3 armor feats, +3 at 1st, +1/3 lvls, cap at +10 at 21st.
UDMastery costs all armor and shield feats, +4 at 1st, +1/2 lvls, cap at +14 at 20th. (Note that UDMastery with +8 bracers of armor is the same bonus that +5 heavy plate and a +5 heavy shield can achieve if my math is correct.)
Since the unarmored defense bonus is a dodge bonus, it follows all the same rules for a dodge bonus as described on p. 307 of the PHB. The most significant of which is that it does not apply when flat-footed or caught unawares by a foe that you did not perceive (such as an invisible or hidden foe).
I anticipate a healthy number of characters will acquire the latter feats pretty quickly. I also have heard some rumblings regarding Vows of Poverty ... we shall see what comes out of character creation, and I shall endeavor to post the initial details on the self-propelled meat snacks late tonight or tomorrow morning.
Wonderful, 5 out of 8 potential participants arrived this evening to generate thier ability scores for each of thier first 3 characters. As posted earlier, each character is generated from the most appealing set of 3 rolled sets of ability scores. (PHB standard method, best 3 out of 4d6, yadda yadda.) Between the 5 players and a total of 45 sets of ability scores, all of (if memory serves) 3 natural 18s were rolled, along with a healthy smattering of low (-1 or even a -2 ability modifier) to +1 and +2 ability modifiers with a few +3 ability modifiers. As I recall, out of those same 45 sets of ability scores generated, only 3 qualified for the Legendary feat (detailed above). Of those 3, only 2 elected to take that feat. As an additional note, it seems that there will be 6 of the hopeful roster of 8 attending the campaign's first session.
For Sunday, the six expected PCs are as follows:
Human Incarnate, planning to rapidly acquire 3 levels of cleric to qualify for the soulmeld/divine spellcaster combo prestige class. Potentially rather nasty combination character. I wonder if he bothered to take Practiced Spellcaster (Cleric) or not ... possibly not, as from what I have gathered thusfar, the character will in the long run (after the 10 level prestige class plus the 4 qualifying levels) likely go for contemplative and/or hierophant afterwards.
Human Monk, planning to take the Shadow Sun Ninja prestige class from the Book of Nine Swords. (I personally derive great enjoyment from this book, despite the Legendary weapons.) Does not, amazingly enough, intend to acquire the Vow of Poverty.
Human Cloistered Cleric (the cleric variant from Unearthed Arcana), planning to be the party's primary crafter of magic items by way of branching into Wizard and thence to Mystic Theurge. (He could do well to, at levels 17-20, take 2 levels of Archmage and 2 levels of Heirophant or Contemplative 1 and Hierophant 1 to finish balancing out his spellcasting capabilities.) Smartly, he took 2 flaws which I permitted him to use to acquire Practiced Spellcaster for both Cleric and Wizard as the general feats in trade. Not surprisingly, the flaws in question were -1 to AC and -1 hp per HD. (The character needs the caster levels to qualify for item creation feats at par with the character levels he receives general feats to acquire them with.)
Of course, the player is already realizing that he will not remotely be able to select all of the item creation feats.
Human Ranger or Fighter (I am unsure as to which, as the player was quite fatigued, stopping by long enough to socialize a bit and generate her sets of ability scores.) of unknown long-term developement.
Human Duskblade - player will be generating ability scores prior to commencing play. Development path unknown - I rather hope this fellow sticks to a pure duskblade. Given his penchant for Arcane Strike, he would most likely do best with the 'vanilla' duskblade core class.
Grey Elf Wizard - player will be generating ability scores prior to commencing play. I am curious as to which direction she elects to develop in as well. I suspect the full 5 levels of Archmage in the latter parts of the campaign. Perhaps she will consider Geometer or some other specialist-style arcane prestige class ? ( The player found the concept of the Blood Magus rather kewl, which could result in a very scary grey elf - Wizard 5, Blood Magus 10, Archmage 5 at 20th level if she is able to 'build' the character correctly ...)
The two 'missing links' are the rogue (trapfinder/lockpicker) and a human scout intent on taking Vow of Poverty (as well as Unarmored Defense Mastery)and making a bloody beeline for dervish by a rather bent and convoluted development path. (There exists the slim possibility that he overlooked the XP hit from core class multiclassing too many levels apart, although I rather expect he did not overlook so simple an error as multiclassing between 3 core classes.)
It is hoped that the rogue will be in regular attendance starting with the second session. The scout cum dervish will attend for what time he can until he can make arrangements for his work schedule that will accomodate regular attendance of the game.
My task of course is to do what I was able to do them time and again in the Red Hand of Doom: hose them royally with the as-written critters and hostiles. (Disappointingly, I discovered greater success on the average with the 'as written' critters than I did with home-brewed critters. Although the fearsome foursome of 4 bluespawn gawdslayers (EL 14) going up against about a dozen 9th level PCs (effective CR to the gawdslayers of obscene) during the big siege in RHoD was a two-session bloodbath par excellance - two characters out of a total of 13 or 14 [after 2 deaths that resulted in new PCs wading into the same battle] that entered into that encounter survived, both rather severely mauled and almost completely depleted of firepower. I have annotated that as one of those critters that, like a kraken, is a death sentence for almost all PCs of a character level lower than the nominal CR of the critter. Although had they a chaotic cleric with multiple align weapon spells prepared, the difficulty would have been much reduced. Alas, they did not, nor did they have much of a clue that such foes would test thier mettle.)
Once they have 7 or 8 regular players, the adjustments to the scenarios may become necessary. Then again, I do have some tantalizing side quests to throw them into feet first to make up for the slower rate of XP earnings. We shall see how the developments proceed.
As an additional side note, I do believe that this will be the first time in a long time that 2 or more Ladies of Hack will be at my game table from the beginning of a campaign. The Ladies of Hack, in general, often add an entertaining dynamic to a game table.
Well, an interesting series of developments came into light today. It seems I am looking at 9 potential players, with 7 confirmed to attend the inaugural campaign session of the First Savage Tide in 14 hours' time. One of the more capable players participating in Allen Stewart's Age of Worms asked if he could participate, which I delightedly told him he would be more than welcome.
Of course, this means modifications to the Savage Tide will be necessary in order to prevent the game from becoming a total cakewalk for the player characters. In light of the successes from my experience running the RHoD, mooks will become fruitful and multiply. Named baddies will be bumped up a notch or two. All well within the parameters so wonderfully outlined in the pertinent sidebars of the pages of Dungeon magazine. (In essence, the effective party level for the initial session will be 1 or 2 levels above the RAW campaign arc.)
I do believe that the newest participant will be providing the rogue-ish element of the group - although, ironically, I do believe that the group will still be lacking a true trapfinder/lockpicker as well as lacking a dedicated provider of curatives. Alas, with sheer numbers on thier side, the party should be able to simply hack thier way to glory, schwag and xp.
Should, of course, is the operative phrase.
To recap, I am facing 2 Ladies of Hack and 5 gentlecritters. A fighter, a duskblade, a grey elf wizard, a cloistered cleric, an incarnate, a monk and a bard for the opening session of the First Savage Tide.
I eagerly look forward to seeing how many of those same characters survive the first session. (Granted, the real measure of the STAP according to the STAP kill thread is the body count for a given chapter... mwahahahhah!!)
Ah, the heady feeling of a nice new player character, the bickering about which gear to get ... the macabre thrill of scoring an almost-TPK on the very first session of the campaign...
Yes, gentlecritters, I had 7 participants (would have had 8, but one had to depart early before all the other characters were finally sorted out) this afternoon and evening for the inaugural session of the First Savage Tide campaign.
Things went as expected for the initial part - the hobbit shows up, hands out Lady Vanderboren's chow invite, the group shows up the next evening for said chow, they agree to go get her signet ring, cash and ship back. All was going well until they actually approached the Blue Nixie from a 2-staged assault.
The first group of 3 characters sneakily swam up to the starboard side of the Blue Nixie - of which 2 succeeded in being reasonably quite in getting onto the man deck undercover, while the 3rd (a kobold monk) botched a Climb check and splooshed into the drink.
Well, sure enough, bedlam broke loose and over the subsequent 7 or so rounds of intense scuffling the heroes of our story gleefully butcher all 7 of the mooks as well as the one source of information, a one Mr Soller Vark. Granted, one or two PCs went into negatives during this fight. Six of them and a staggered arrival of bad guys ... I was amazed at how well Mr Vark performed, albiet greatly aided by the other PCs not wishing to risk ranged weapons fire on the bad guy engaged in a brief but furious swordfight with one of thier own.
After those 7 rounds plus another 3 rounds of "clean up", a horrid noise or series of noises emanated from the open ladder well to the ship's hold. Ever brave, our intrepid band of heroes saw one of the two clerics (in this case, a cleric of St Cuthbert) as well as the duskblade decend with no clue as to the horror that awaited them therein. The two sneaky types (the monk and the scout) also descended into the hold behind the two tanks.
Sadly, for them, the two rhagodessa so long caged and tormented with fresh food *right there* finally smashed thier way free of thier lackluster captors had largely finished snacking on the exotic flora and monkeys once the two point-snacks rounded the main mast ... and right smack into chomping range.
Well, 3 of the PCs rather rapidly maneuvered up on the main deck to where they could fire through the cargo hold's opening into the critterbugs without fear of repercussion. Initiatives were rolled, and the player characters at first seemed to have things well in hand, bringing thier fire to bear upon a single critterbug. Unfortunately for them, the rhagodessa then got to take thier turns.
First down was the gutsy cleric of St Cuthbert - torn in twain and discarded into the smouldering straw of the cage - followed by the duskblade, reduced to a steaming pile of fresh long pork within a three-step of the ladder back up to the main deck. Next to die was the monk and the scout, both devoured alive by the two rhagodessas before the missile fire of the 3 party members on the top deck laid low one - and just succeeded in injuring the second enough to let it know that more food needed to be subdued.
At this point I realized the beasties have a climb speed of 40 ft, which it used to access the main deck, only to tear apart the conjurer and the grey elf wizard in short order. Six dead now ...
The cloistered cleric, not at all unwise, cast a Sanctuary spell on himself and hastily retreated back to port to procure more capable assistants than his previous associates.
The first session and I scored 6 out of a possible 7 character deaths in the first combat area of significance. I'm liking the Savage Tide more and more already...
Yes, being a moderately sadistic bastich, I ramped the final encounter on the Blue Nixie to 2 rhagodessa. My posting on the STAP Obit thread failed to mention that fact.
To perhaps better clarify things, there were a few amazing blunders on the part of the characters. Die rolls were not really what killed 6 characters - bad tactics and insufficient information gathering was the primary catalyst. The 'deathbugs' were merely the instrument of thier dismemberment.
Many of these players have had me as the screen monkey before, and are well aware of the fact that, when they screw up, I tend to (depending on the bad guys in question) be utterly ruthless in prosecuting hostilities. This session should serve nicely as a wake up call to that effect - you screw the pooch, your character(s) are going to die.
I had drawn out the main deck of the Blue Nixie when they clambered aboard, noting what they could see in the ways of the main mast, the open hatch and ladder (into the hold), the sets of stairs going up to the foc'sl and poop decks, the set of stairs descending into the hold and the mesh covering of the caged area where the 2 rhagodessas were kept before breaking out and chowing on everything else.
As you may recall from the above post, 3 of the PCs had position themselves to rain projectile weapons fire into the hold while 4 not so wisely descended into the hold.
A few basic questions (that stairway at the rear, does that go down into the hold ?) and a Spot check or two from the main deck through the wooden grate/mesh over the main hold would have given them a far better idea of what they were facing. They could have positioned thier primary missile weapons characters at the mesh while positioning thier melee characters at the ladder opening from the hold with readied actions to skewer anything coming up from below and most likely messily dispatched both of the bugs.
The characters' last mistake in a way was to continue pelting the surviving rhagodessa with arrows, bolts and sling stones from above. The rhagodessa are vicious, nasty bugs ... and if they had ceased peppering it with ranged weapons fire, it would have proceeded to chowing on the fresh meals in easy reach while the surviving characters withdrew to lick thier wounds and recruit replacements. The way I figure, without someone or something giving such critters orders, if you cease causing them pain or otherwise presenting yourself as a potential meal, they'll generally happily chow on whatever they have at hand.
I gave the six PC's a "free death" as a result of the brutality of the encounter, plus one for the sole survivor to use later (probably within the next session or two). This allows me to possibly waste the exact same set of characters twice after all ... while making the players feel less hacked off about how "unfair" the encounter was.
In the warm glow of the aftermath of the carnage, 3 of the players lingered around discussing the various basic mistakes made, most of which were covered above.
6 days and counting ...
Sadly folks, Turin has broken my record for opening session Player Character Kills (5), and I am slightly less than thrilled about losing my 'record' in less than twelve months after having achieved it... It makes me wish my current campaign was back at "good ole' level One". I'd be wiping them out in droves all over again:) Ah, such fond memories...
Sadly folks, Turin has broken my record for opening session Player Character Kills (5), and I am slightly less than thrilled about losing my 'record' in less than twelve months after having achieved it... It makes me wish my current campaign was back at "good ole' level One". I'd be wiping them out in droves all over again:) Ah, such fond memories...
LoL. Allen, they have been rather enthusiastically batting back and forth via e-mail the mistakes they realized which were made in hindsight. (Just gotta love how 20/20 hindsight is, eh ?)
What remains to be seen is how well they deal with the (probably) moderately-amped up critters and named foes lurking ahead of them in the AP.
I've pretty much told them that the AP will be RAW, with forewarning that tweaking will be required if they have 7 or more participants.
Thus far, I've worked up the modified stat blocks for the next four major baddies in the pipeline. There is a good chance they won't get to them until the third session however.
And, even better, they are also largely eager to go after the side quests too, for various reasons.
Now, if only the Paizonians at Gen Con would hurry on back already and gimmie my book. ^_^
Thus far, I've worked up the modified stat blocks for the next four major baddies in the pipeline. There is a good chance they won't get to them until the third session however.. ^_^
Sir Sean is willing to negotiate terms for a cameo appearance:)
Sir Sean is willing to negotiate terms for a cameo appearance:)
Thus far, I've worked up the modified stat blocks for the next four major baddies in the pipeline. There is a good chance they won't get to them until the third session however.. ^_^
Sir Sean is a mite high in level to show up so soon my friend. :)
Sir Sean is a mite high in level to show up so soon my friend. :)Sir Sean is willing to negotiate terms for a cameo appearance:)
Thus far, I've worked up the modified stat blocks for the next four major baddies in the pipeline. There is a good chance they won't get to them until the third session however.. ^_^
What, do you doubt your ability to kill a higher level adventurer in a low level scenario? Surely not. Shame on you Turin the Mad!
What, do you doubt your ability to kill a higher level adventurer in a low level scenario? Surely not. Shame on you Turin the Mad!Sir Sean is a mite high in level to show up so soon my friend. :)Sir Sean is willing to negotiate terms for a cameo appearance:)
Thus far, I've worked up the modified stat blocks for the next four major baddies in the pipeline. There is a good chance they won't get to them until the third session however.. ^_^
LOLOL - I am betting good Sir Al of N is more referencing Sir Sean, a feytouched fighter with a mercurial greatsword fetish, one of his homebrewed villains. I do not believe he intends to use him as a PC, but rather as a cameo villian to messily butcher the party.
Naturally, the cameo in question would not occur until the grunts reached 8th or 9th level... we'll talk later.
That grey text background ... blecch ...
I agree completely. Ought to be coated red by the time you and I finish slaughtering all those tards:)
And you were correct in your assessment, my distinguished comrade in crime, regarding said cameo in question.
How about Lesson #11?
Lesson #11: When 4th Edition is released all these lessons will be subject to change.
A possibility for anyones STAP campaigns?
How about Lesson #11?
Lesson #11: When 4th Edition is released all these lessons will be subject to change.
A possibility for anyones STAP campaigns?
Gawds, I hope not, lolol. Although at least two of my players are hooked on the D&D Online MMORPG, and from what they've said, that game is credited with being based on D&D 4.0 ...
No, even if they shat out 4.0 at the end of the month, the Savage Tide will remain a 3.5 campaign. :)
If nothing else, to save me the trouble of having to re-stat every single critter in the campaign arc ...
And from what I saw of "4.0" in the MMORPG (via the free trial account), I am not particularly impressed.
I agree completely. Ought to be coated red by the time you and I finish slaughtering all those tards:)
I wonder if I could get a background for these posts, something suitably nautical and carnage-laden ...
I just hope the group doesn't decide to run an all-elf all-cleric party ...
As a random ramble, out of a total of 72 sets of witnessed ability score sets generated by the first 8 players, a grand total of 4 or maybe 5 nat 18's were rolled.
Seems like a good habit to get back into ... far, far too many characters of late have been showing up with 2 or more "nat 18's" conveniently rolled up, every character, every time.
In 4 long, long days we will see if the 7 players can once again get themselves killed off, or if my dice have to earn thier heads ... while the elf wizard will be absent, the gnome rogue (going for arcane trickster) should be present.
In about an hour and a half, seven players should arrive to once again hack thier way through the Savage Tide and commence to dying.
Stay tuned for the after action report. ^_^
I do have to admit to considering a massive Labor Day Weekend cook-out and hackfest, starting Fri evening and going the entire way through the weekend until we can't stand to look at each other anymore.
It will be interesting to see how many gentlecritters are game for this. ^_^
Oh, and Calavangian, I do not doubt my ability to waste higher level PC's that the 'script' calls for. After all, I am sure Allen well recalls 'skreem the goblin, among other nefarious NPCs of my own...
I do recall Skream the Goblin, and my wonderful Ranger character that Skream killed. I also recall my even cooler halfling fighter character that carved out Skream's lungs in the process of dispatching him messily, along with assistance from I believe Kyle and 'Dying Don':)
*sigh* From what I can infer from that last comment my own campaign seems to have acquired a "Dying Don" or "Useless Ninja who shall-not-be-named" of its own. So far, in two sessions, one of my players has had his character go down three times.
Luckily (or not, depending on how you look at it) he`s been saved by action-point stabilising each time. Just as well actually, as the characterin question appears to the be the smart one when it comes to tactics.
Alas, the second session of the First Savage Tide resulted in no character deaths whatsoever, leaving me at a total of 6 character deaths for There is No Honor.
While 7 players showed up to participate, 2 of them split early, narrowly avoiding potential death at the maws of the ravenous zombie pirates.
Sadly, the group took a week and a half to prowl through the districts of Sasserine. During this time, both Vanthus and the Lotus Dragons caught wind of the nosy character's active pursuit of Vanthus' location.
As scripted, a one Shefton Rosk was dispatched to lure the characters to Parrot Island, which was amazingly successful. After the active characters, with the 3 or 4 inactive characters in tow as a passive rearguard, advanced a healthy distance into the abandoned smuggler's complex, a shrill scream was heard behind them, one that ended quite abruptly.
Returning rapidly to the entry room, the first 2 characters on the scene arrived in time to view the severed rope coil rapidly on the pulverized steaming remains of Mr. Rosk. One did procure the note stuffed in Mr Rosk's mouth, with a number of lovingly expressed sentiments penned by the hand of dear Vanthus. They did observe that the stone trap door was lowered back into place along with the clear sounds of boulders rolled into place atop the trap door.
The inactive characters are tasked to explore the (unkeyed) eastern reaches of the complex while the active characters venture first east, then forced open a door on the NW corner of the first sizable room to the east of the 10 ft hallway's double doors. Lo and behold, a pair of ravenous zombie pirates attempted (and failed) to devour the surprised character. After the clerics attempted turn attempts, one was finally successful, forcing the carnivorous corpses to flee at thier (not-so-)best speed. Given the low Burst DC's of the doors in the complex, the fleeing zombies took turns to literally plow through the doors in thier flight from the turn attempt, leaving 3 shattered doors in thier wake.
The PC's gleefully took turns maneuvering to take advantage of the turn, capitalizing on the provoked attacks of opportunity the zombies' movements provided. Sadly, one zombie of the two (the other having been dispatched by the characters) fled directly into the waiting claws of the crabs awaiting easy food. Most of my best attack rolls of the session were wasted on the crabs' butchery of the zombie, reducing it to necro-chum in a single round.
Due to a PC opening fire on the crabs, these same crabs then surged forward to snippity-snip characters into fresh long pork. Sadly, the curative capabilities of TWO clerics in the party proved barely sufficient to thwart the sharp pincers of the crabs. (One character was briefly dropped to low negative hp's from a crab's grapple, acquiring yet another scar encompassing one of his knees to go along with thier collection from the death bugs in the prior session.)
From the surprise round after opening the door through the dispatching of the first bundle of crabs, about 15 rounds of game time passed, thus expiring the Cleric of St Cuthbert's Divine Favor.
Even better, almost completely depleted of curative capacity, the PC's courted another encounter in order to level up to 2nd level. I of course obliged them with another small swarming of carnivorous crabs, but sadly was again not-quite successful in messily dispatching any characters. ( Several were moderately mauled, but not one character even reduced to negative hit points, a great tragedy indeed.)
Now, 5 PCs out of 8 or 9 possible attendees are 2nd level.
Fortuitously, I can presently expect a total headcount next week of 8 participants, freeing me to brutalize them with an augmented showdown with Veldimar Krund and a small platoon of ravenous zombie pirates ! Oh joy ! Oh rapture ! (Unfortunately for Mr. Krund, the savvy rogue-ish types searched the pool and found the masterworked silver dagger. Curses upon them all.)[Gleefully looks over the upgunning notes for purposes of making the charming fellow a proper challenge for such a large group of PC's.]
To refresh, the present party composition is as follows:
Human Cloistered Cleric 2, Kobold Monk 1/Rogue 1, Human Rogue 1, Human dragonthingie [I am rapidly coming to despise Races of the Dragon] Duskblade 1, Grey Elf Wizard 1 (female), Human Enchanter 2, Human Cleric of St Cuthbert 2 (female), Human Scout 1/Fighter 1 and the ninth whose occupation has as yet to be determined. (The ninth possible participant has as yet to have time to generate his character due to prior commitments over the entirety of August through Labor Day Weekend.)
I do recall Skream the Goblin, and my wonderful Ranger character that Skream killed. I also recall my even cooler halfling fighter character that carved out Skream's lungs in the process of dispatching him messily, along with assistance from I believe Kyle and 'Dying Don':)
I rather recall that it was a ghoul touch spell or perhaps a Hold Person spell (paralyzing the hapless goblin) followed by Book of Vile Darkness-grade torture before his lungs were carved out which the whole player group took great delight in delivering.
Of course, such a horrid death could warrant some form of undeath in the aftermath ...
*sigh* From what I can infer from that last comment my own campaign seems to have acquired a "Dying Don" or "Useless Ninja who shall-not-be-named" of its own. So far, in two sessions, one of my players has had his character go down three times.
Luckily (or not, depending on how you look at it) he`s been saved by action-point stabilising each time. Just as well actually, as the characterin question appears to the be the smart one when it comes to tactics.
As you can see Calavingian, action points are readily expended as fast as they are accumulated. It is somewhat disheartening that the tactically savvy member of the group is the one who is falling over repeatedly.
The Dying One was, shall we say, a mite reckless and impulsive, often resulting in quite hilarious character deaths - such as jumping INTO lava go to in after the magical greatsword the character threw at a salamander partially immersed in the lava...
The Useless Ninja / Seriously Flawed Hexblade is, as always,about as attentive as a bar of mouldy soap. Amazingly, he avoided any form of character death whatsoever this weekend between the two campaigns. A measure I strongly suspect shall be remedied within the next two weeks' time.
Players never cease to amaze. Out of 5 male characters, 3 (including the kobold) are trying to shmooze thier way into Lavinia's bedchambers. Naturally, they are not up to task against her +16 Diplomacy bonus (at 2nd level), nor are they up to snuff against her fairly decent Sense Motive bonus. With each failed attempt, the DC steadily increases. Soon, a PC is looking to get canned (or skewered) by her out of sheer frustration at the crassness of the behavior. (Yes, a kobold is trying to score with Lavinia.)
The cloistered cleric player character is taking the tack of being the loyal retainer to Miss L. Vanderboren.
LOL. The kobold is trying to seduce a noble lady!!! Ah, players, dontcha just love em? Next thing you know you`ll be telling us the kobold has actually tried wearing clothes to impress her.
And yes, you were right, they are going through action points like dysentary through a seagull. I dont feel so bad know, though I wish the tactically savvy player had a character with more than just seven hit points and an ac of 13.
LOL. The kobold is trying to seduce a noble lady!!! Ah, players, dontcha just love em? Next thing you know you`ll be telling us the kobold has actually tried wearing clothes to impress her.
And yes, you were right, they are going through action points like dysentary through a seagull. I dont feel so bad know, though I wish the tactically savvy player had a character with more than just seven hit points and an ac of 13.
The kobold routinely wears a rather oversized robe, mainly to avoid being skewered by inebriated adventurers spending thier last haul, as a matter of fact.
What's worse, one of the characters undertook some kind of wierdo-bizarro ritual (he says) in his backstory ("After all, the only cost *listed* is 100 gp! "), basically making his character some kind of wierd, funky semi-half dragon ... thing. Nominally a servant of Bahamut. Uh huh. Oookaay ... well, frankly, this wierd-ass character is critter-chow next session, and that will take care of that. (This is I believe some kind of Bahamut-exclusive devout follower-only ritual of transformation from the Races of Dragon book. And of course he wants this AFTER getting the Dummies' Guide to Savage Tide by yours truly basically stating that narrow-field stuff is a Bad Idea, with examples (Dragon anything, the various half-critter races, ad nauseam) liberally provided.
Well, probably critter-chow. The player in question has a rather broad impulsive streak, so I am mainly relying on that to observe him killing his character for me.
Strike that - the fugger's character IS critter chow. I really, really hate blatant rules lawyerism like this, *especially* when I find out about it after-the-fact. Like my friend of many years, Allen, I am a firm believer in fragging characters as fairly as possible. Preferably without instilling hard feelings while everyone has a good time (until thier characters become critter kibble). While he (the impulsive player) is trying to improve, at this point in time, his personal play style - utterly irregardless of what CHARACTER he is playing - is that of a barbarian/fighter, heavy on the fighter. He pretty much blitzes into melee combat as fast as possible. For a duskblade or hexblade, that is not such a good thing, especially at higher levels. *Sighs*
Methinks I shall be having a lengthly, vitriolic conversation with this particular player within the next week regarding the incessant attempts to 'tweak this' and 'modify that' with poorly, poorly thought out logic. (His sorry homebrewed race in poor Allen's AoW campaign has some kind of asinine susceptibility to anti-magic fields. Yet, this same race is vaguely lycanthropic. HOW does this make reasonable sense as a "+0 level adj." lycanthropic race again ? ... Yeah, he can be a headache like that.)
An example of modifications made, by a more sensible player, was in regards to the Arcane Trickster prestige class. The class' abiliities are all specifically oriented on 3 skills (ranged legerdemain). Yet, amazingly, NONE of the requisite skill ranks are from any of these 3 skills ... strikes me as a mite daft, so we hashed out a sensible alteration to the prestige class' requirements. Since I agree with his logic, I marked my own DMG accordingly for personal future house-rules. Along with others ... sundering worn armor, summonable vermin natures' allies[let's face it, the Vermin Lord prestige class exhales mightily], so on and so on.
I love my players (in a GM-that-likes-testing-his-players'-mettle way), but there are times when they are just ... exasperating.
As an aside, I almost - but not quite - had a PK or more FROM THE PLAYERS THEMSELVES ! It was in the vault with the iron cobra (ran as written despite the 7 players that were in play for this part of the 2nd session). During the ensuing struggle (while Lavinia was still out in the hallway with the cloistered cleric) the duskblade hucked an acid cantrip onto the rogue (due to firing ranged attacks into melee) only, on the next round, to be almost-disembowelled by said rogue (slashed down to 1 hp from a single blow). Sadly, the player elected to roll % dice to determine his next course of action, and rolled the % range which indicated at least a brief parlay with the hexblade.
I fear / hope that one or the other becomes critter kibble next session. I hope that they can also keep any emotional baggage out of the session as well. I am not so optimistic on that last sentiment however ...
If readers here happen to also persue my thread "Killer GM runs Age of Worms", you might find it amusing to note (as Turin implied, but I don't think actually stated) that the Player of the Dragon-thingie/Duskblade 1, in the above post; is also the player of the HEXBLADE in the Killer AoW thread, who has DIED FOURTEEN (14) times in AoW thus far, with the main campaign heavies still to come. I'm predicting another two or three deaths, and I'm hoping for six more, to make an even 20 for the whole AoW campaign. I wonder if he'll fare any better in Turin's campaign here. I doubt it...
If readers here happen to also persue my thread "Killer GM runs Age of Worms", you might find it amusing to note (as Turin implied, but I don't think actually stated) that the Player of the Dragon-thingie/Duskblade 1, in the above post; is also the player of the HEXBLADE in the Killer AoW thread, who has DIED FOURTEEN (14) times in AoW thus far, with the main campaign heavies still to come. I'm predicting another two or three deaths, and I'm hoping for six more, to make an even 20 for the whole AoW campaign. I wonder if he'll fare any better in Turin's campaign here. I doubt it...
Ah yes, might be interesting to relay whom of the players in the AoW has translated to the First Savage Tide campaign.
AoW char --> 1st STAP char:
Hexblade --> Duskblade dragonthingamajigger, last name Suntudye
Wizard, grey elf --> same
Cleric #3 --> rogue, NE
Frenzied Berserker w/ AM armor --> dervish from hell
The other 4 1/2 participants are not regulars in the AoW.
Had an interesting request from one of the semi-regular participants who attended this past weekend's session of the AoW campaign. He really liked the 'souvenier' (which was also responsible for fragging his character via Symbol of Death). I shall have to investigate this further, as it seemed to strike a cord.
Death Certificates anyone ?
Given my rambling, meandering posts prior, it seems wise to post a recap of the first two sessions of the campaign thusfar.
Session One : 7 PC's accept Lavinia's "gimmie my ship back" mission with gold in thier eyes and experience points dancing over thier heads in thier dreams. While they have a relatively easy time of getting aboard the Blue Nixie and messily butchering all of the mook NPCs as well as the one named NPC (Soller Vark), all but 1 die horribly at the mandibles of two rhagodessa chowing on everything in the cargohold.
Interesting happenings aboard the Blue Nixie: A PC (the duskblade) is brained by a light crossbow (wielded two-handed as a club by Soller Vark's squeeze), misses his AOO as she rips her rapier out of her sheath and is skewered by her, over the course of two rounds. Soller Vark is the only NPC to verify a critical hit, but sadly fails to achieve his desired result (dead PC). The one mook who jumped overboard in an attempt to swim away is perforated in a hail of crossbow bolts and arrows from the ship's railing, a scant 50 feet from the nominal safety of pier 5.
A short time after (3 rounds), the PC's hear a shriek that is cut off in mid-'riek, which sees 4 of them immediately proceed down the ladder and into the main hold. Two characters make no attempt at stealth or recon and walk smack dab into one of the two rhagodessa. Combat ensues, damage is dealt in droves, 4 rounds later one rhagodessa is down, the second wounded but 6 characters are in gory chunks of long pork salsa in the hold and on the main deck. The first session is concluded by the 'rescue mission' mounted by the cloistered cleric, at which point a 'free death' is awarded to each PC, with the cloistered cleric having the only one unused.
Second Session: The PCs (7 in number), eager to get paid, venture with Lavinia to the vault, tangle with the iron cobra, have an in-character scuffle during the melee with the construct, only to have Lavinia make her INT check on round 5 and use her signet ring to commandeer the critter. The characters actually figure out the combination to the vault with no help from Lavinia (nor resorting to Open Lock checks), are awarded xp and receive thier payment. They accept Lavinia's offer of patronage and return to Vanderboren Manor to sort through the notes. While Lavinia is dealing with paperwork and collecting on the debts owed to her family, the characters are tasked with tracking down her wayward brother Vanthus. 10 days go by in Sasserine as money is spent to loosen lips, at the end of that day of which the 5 active characters finally acquire a lead. Many attempts are made by several PCs to "score" with Lavinia, all of which are handily rebuffed by her awesome +16 Diplomacy bonus and backed up by her not-insubstantial Sense Motive bonus. Yes, even the kobold monk tries. (Seems kobolds are a tad on the indiscriminately randy side.)
During the fight with the iron cobra, the duskblade missed an acid spray, instead hitting the rogue. Said rogue administered an attitude adjustment with his rapier, nearly disembowelling the duskblade for me. Much chuckling was had by the GM.
Of course, this is the poor sap Vanthus has tasked to detour the stumbling heroes to Parrot Island. They players bite hook line and sinker, travel to Parrot Island, go down the rope en masse only to find that behind them Vanthus has crushed the sap's skull in, tossed him down the rope with a note stuffed in his mouth, cut the rope and rolled boulders atop the stone trap door. Upon retrieving the note, they find Vanthus' sterling character in full swing, expressing his sentiments to show the wimmen of the party thier 'proper place in the kitchen', among other fun statements that do not bear repeating in public.
As the active characters explore the smugglers' den beneath Parrot Island, they encounter a couple of hungry animates, find out quickly that slashing weapons are a Good Idea, turn them, chase them and harry them with slashing attacks. One is brought low, the second chased into the freshwater 'pond' where all the Sasserine King Crabs of Amputation lay in waiting for chow and observe five of them snip the zombie into necrochow in a matter of seconds. Of course, being hungry for both chow and xp, the party immediately opens fire on the crabs, who swarm them in two waves, but are sadly dispatched. A close call on a dismemberment of the scout was the best that could be managed. The session ended with 5 characters at 2nd level and a large group of PCs savoring the prospect of about 120 pounds of fresh crab meat for dinner.
Session 3 is where Parrot Island resumes, the 5 actives almost out of spells, rather desperately in need of rest, but having rather noisily made thier presence known in the catacombs ...
Ah yes, might be interesting to relay whom of the players in the AoW has translated to the First Savage Tide campaign.
AoW char --> 1st STAP char:
Hexblade --> Duskblade dragonthingamajigger, last name Suntudye
Wizard, grey elf --> same
Cleric #3 --> rogue, NE
Frenzied Berserker w/ AM armor --> dervish from hellThe other 4 1/2 participants are not regulars in the AoW.
No, not regulars, but the player of the Gnome Artificer is one of the 4 1/2. He played in AoW this last week, and saw his Gnome Artificer read the symbol of death scroll and fall over dead:)
No, not regulars, but the player of the Gnome Artificer is one of the 4 1/2. He played in AoW this last week, and saw his Gnome Artificer read the symbol of death scroll and fall over dead:)Ah yes, might be interesting to relay whom of the players in the AoW has translated to the First Savage Tide campaign.
AoW char --> 1st STAP char:
Hexblade --> Duskblade dragonthingamajigger, last name Suntudye
Wizard, grey elf --> same
Cleric #3 --> rogue, NE
Frenzied Berserker w/ AM armor --> dervish from hellThe other 4 1/2 participants are not regulars in the AoW.
Ah, yes, for some reason the Gnome Artificer strikes me as ... well, a speed bump with no name. And he is still tickled pink at getting offed by that little gem. I'm considering issuing death certificates in the Savage Tide because of it...
Speaking of oddball players, I can't get some of these guys to sit still on a character concept even for one level. Fortunately, this is happening at 1st level, nice and early, so they'll hopefully settle down. Of course, should they get themselves devoured by the hungry dead ...
At present, I believe the 3rd sesssion of the First Savage Tide will comprise the following PC's:
Human Enchanter specialist wizard 2 (who has replaced a Conjurer, presently on standby status.)
Grey Elf female generalist wizard 1
Human Cloistered Cleric 2
Human Rogue 1
Human Scout 2 (or Scout 1 / something else 1)
Human female Cleric of St Cuthbert 2 (big into smiting, lots of smiting)
Dragonboring-something Duskblade 1, wearing "Suntudye" name tag
Dwarf Druid 2 (replacing the kobold monk, presently on standby status.)
I'll see what I can do to them with a double fistful of mook zombies backed up by an undead cleric with bolster undead attempts available...
Well, now that I've spent an enormous sum on gobs o' goodies from Paizo, I won't have to worry about missing out on any kewl stuff for quite some time to come.
Most of which I'll have in my grubby paws the end of next week, probably just in time for Rowyn and Gut Tugger to go to town on my double-sized group of semi-malevolent player characters. (I nabbed a crested felldrake mini for the express purpose of having it for Gut Tugger.)
Well ok, I stacked an awful lot of pre-orders in that pile of RL schwag. So, I'm good until oh - May 2008. ^_^
Since my FLGS has become rather .. erratic with procurement, and of course spurred on by the impending development of 4th ed., I'm firmly throwing some greenbacks at Paizo. In exchange for which I'll get some really kewl goodies. Hopefully, when I get home tomorrow, Pathfinder 1 will be awaiting perusal, whilst Greyhawk Ruins shows up just in time for Labor Day Weekend. Wewt !!
Oh, and the whole campaign thing - patience gentlecritters, I expect to be posting the aftermath of Sunday's session soon enough.
The third session of the First Savage Tide began with 8 player characters beneath Parrot Island the morning after thier first night entrapped by a one Mr. Vanthus Vanderboren.
The party had elected to encamp the night in the entry hallway of the complex, which is a narrow twisting space not well suited to group defense with a character group of this size.
After breaking fast on grilled crab sandwiches and rather nasty tasting water, the lead fighter of the group, our esteemed Duskblade, elected to bash open the door leading into the main entry hallway.
Due to the amount of noise the PCs had made the previous night, as well as making no particular attempts at either a stealthy encampment nor a particularly quiet morning repast, I ruled that the huecuva cleric and his remaining 7 ravenous zombies would be prepared as well as they could be for ambushing the characters in the morning just outside thier flimsy door.
Due to the presence of 8 PCs, I added one cleric level and the elite ability score array (dumping the -2 into the non-ability score of CON) into the pre-fight write up of the accursed Veldimar Krund. Krund and his hungry minions rather easily heard the flurry of discussion amongst the PCs prior to busting down thier one door, so the buffing began. Krund dropped his Shield of Faith, Guidance, Resistance and Divine Favor spells on himself (in that order). The Duskblade smashed through the door into the hall, finding four ravenous zombies to his left and 3 off to his right. Krund he did not see, but he did hear Krund's pronouncement of "BOLSTER !!" as the pulse of negative energy washed over him and all 7 hungry zombies. Unluckily for the party, I nat 19'd Krund's turning check, yielding a +4 to his 2 cleric levels (with a 22 total on his turning check) and rolled enough turning damage to bolster himself and ALL 7 of the zombies! (Thus, the 7 zombies counted as 6 HD undead, while combined with his +2 turn resistance Krund counted as an 8 HD undead for turning purposes.)
Initiatives were rolled and combat ensued. The grand melee took about 4 hours and covered a staggering 24 rounds (!) of combat. The party once again did rather poorly perform tactically, and especially made the critical mistake of not focussing fire. Equally mediocre equippage selections also bit them in the kiester - longspears are your friend in enclosed spaces (depending on the characters in question of course).
The first player character to die was the kobold monk, devoured alive by a pair of zombie pirates.
A brief few rounds later, the stabiliized (at -9 hp) duskblade was unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast of the grey elf wizard's Burning Hands spell, generating the campaign's first 'friendly fire' kill.
Not long after that, the formidable smiting cleric of St Cuthbert was laid low by a well-placed Inflict Light Wounds delivered by Mr Krund, and subsequently devoured by the same pair of pirate zombies that ate the kobold.
The last player character kill was also scored by Mr. Krund, via his 2d6 Death Touch domain ability upon the kobold monk's replacement character, a Dwarven Druid. As the druid had but 4 remaining hit points, death was rapid and permanent.
Thusfar, in 3 sessions of play, 10 PCs have died, 1 at the business end of the wizard's burning hands. I am truly impressed with the groups' track record thus far...
Brilliant performances on some of the players (the rogue 'pimp' especially) ensured that the player characters ultimately won the day, got the schwag and returned with the notes written by Vanthus and Penchus to Lavinia. During the total of 8 days they remained beneath Parrot Island, the characters finished eating all of thier crab and - sadly - cleverly employed Heal checks over long-term treatment to cure the one surviving character who contracted Huecuva Blight.
After a day or two, said pimp collected Gather Information beer money from his girls and set about tracking down more information on the Lotus Dragons and of course dear Vanthus, who has quite irked the two female elves in the party. They tracked down a few clues (got the first 2 Gather Info bits but not the 3rd), were approaching the Dead Dog Alley location adjacent to the Taxidermists' joint when things got interesting.
The ever-creative pimp had procured himself a guard dog, along with hide barding for the critter (giving the dawg an AC higher than most of the characters) and sent it down the alleyway to set off traps or spring an ambush. Sadly, the 3 Lotus Dragons with thier poisoned hand crossbow bolts were only successful with one shot on the dawg, having failed thier WIS checks to not take the bait.
Combat ensued, two of the 3 Lotus Dragon mooks were mowed down over the course of 2 rounds in a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts, while the third, wounded, succeeded in dropping into the Crucible and shouting 'Alarm! Alarm!'.
Amazingly, the characters elected to loot the two thieves, then wandered away to sell of the hand crossbows (which I personally view as an overpriced exotic weapon of no real worth, but hey, what can I say, that's what they got) prior to returning. One potion of Cure Light Wounds was successfully plundered from the two rogues' carcasses.
At the moment, Rowyn's assessment of her new foes is not exactly high on the list of "following thier momentum", shall we say. She also understands hit and run basics pretty readily, so she will take advantage of the players' greed and adjust the defenses of the Den accordingly.
Labor Day weekend will see two days' consecutive mayhem (Sunday and Monday both) in the den of the Lotus Dragon, with a forewarned foe who has skulkers out keeping distant tabs on the group's whereabouts whilst they take thier sweet time coming back to Dead Dog Alley/the Taxidermists' shop. Will our not-so-noble heroes purge Sasserine of this scourge ? Will our scurrilous scaliwags switch sides upon hearing Rowyn's proposal ? Or will they be butchered horribly in the Crucible ? Perhaps even worse awaits them, in the form of the nightmare-inducing rhagodessae Rowyn have on 'standby' ...
Thus far, the First Savage Tide campaign is ahead of my good friend Allen Stewart's Age of Worms campaign in the PC body count department. And to think, most consider me the "kindler, gentler" of the two of us.
As of the third session of the AoW he is running, 8 PC kills were documented, whereas this campaign has thusfar racked up 10 PC fatalities in its first 3 sessions. In both cases, 1 out of the first 3 sessions had no PC fatalities whatsoever. And in both cases it remains my assesment that player brain-farting was the direct cause of most of the character deaths.
Comparing the two campaign arcs this early on is rather strange I admit, but Allen's bound and determined to 'outkill' me. ^_^
I'm wondering at the moment if I can leapfrog further ahead at the conclusion of the US Labor Day weekend holiday, which will tally the 4th and 5th sessions by the conclusion of business Monday evening.
By the end of his 4th session, Allen had 13 PC fatalities. By the end of his 5th session, 15 PC fatalities.
Given an entirely 2nd level party of as many as 8 PCs gearing up to charge headlong into the Lotus Dragon's den, I am unsure of being able to tack on another 5 character fatalities in two sessions, given the statistical casualty rate of 3 or 4 per session. 'Tis the erroneous nature of the " zero casualty" sessions that throw things off a mite.
Of course, if the pace keeps up, at 5 sessions per chapter, that means 60 sessions just to cover the main arc, not counting side quests, totalling a staggering theoretical body bag count of 80 fatalities should the mathematical averages remain at pace for the entire remainder of the Savage Tide...
(Granted, the AoW is well on pace to secure or exceed that high a count, as we're very near or already at 60 at the tail end of Chapter 10...)
Don't cheer for him folks. I'll have the highest percentage kill total when all the swaggering's done:)
Don't cheer for him folks. I'll have the highest percentage kill total when all the swaggering's done:)
Have no fear dear friend, this is quite early on in the Tide, whereas we're about 80% of the way through the AoW. Time will tell its gruesome tale. :)
Having seen 10 character deaths in 3 weeks gave me pause to consider the mentions I've made on the forums regarding death certificates. Players of course hate having to repeatedly make up new characters, while I personally feel strongly the necessity for death to have an impact. Ordinarily, being forced to make a new character is incentive enough to spur players to actually think (at least a bit) about what they play and do. Sadly, many of my players thusfar are proving to be rather obstinate regarding learning the basic survival traits of the game, at least as it relates to how I GM.
I am considering a few things:
1. Issuing death certificates to be attached to a character sheet at each incident of character death. I'm fairly sure I have a usable document of such buried in the gaming schwag I have stuffed in a closet upstairs at home, so I suppose this weekend coming up would be a good time to do the much-delayed spring cleaning I've been meaning to do. It strikes me that this would be a (literally) hefty reminder as to the price of folly. Or, it could very much encourage such reckless behavior as continues contributing to repeated messy demises, both of which would work for me nicely. ^_^
2. Every, say, 1 or 2 chapters, generate a post in this campaign journal to collect nominations and votes regarding somthing along the lines of: Most Humiliating/Pathetic Character Death, Most Gruesome Character Death, or the like. Most Character Deaths of course would be rather self-explanatory.
So, gentlecritters, what are your opinions on the concepts ?
My vote for most humiliating death goes to the Duskblade, toasted to perfection by the Burning Hands spell from his own team.
Who says Burning Hands isn't a good spell? ;)
He does, probably :D