Ulfskar
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Finally we get to start the long awaited adventure. To start things off I had each character prepare a back-story ahead of time and I worked on a "gap filler" to bridge the gap between their back-story and why they were in Cauldron. This also gave me the chance to give the players a little extra knowledge to start off the adventure (even if they didn't fully realize it). All and all, the pre-setup went well. My group of 5 quickly turned in to a group of 4 when one player announced he couldn't make it. The fun part about this was that he was the only healer. The party make-up was:
- Rogue
- Wizard
- Monk
- Barbarian
- Cleric (not present).
Only two of the characters knew each other before Event 1, so I had them start randomly on the street when the cry for help was heard. This fight didn't go as I had hope because the wizard managed to roll highest on his init and started off the fight casting sleep. A few failed rolls later, and the thugs were done (2 dropped, 1 stood for 1 round before a barbarian crit. None got to act). The group proceeded to loot them, tie them up, and turn them over to the city guards on their way to the church of St. Cuthbert. Once at the church things went a little more smoothly. The party introduced themselves, accepted the quest, and then returned to the Drunken Morkoth inn and spent the night getting to know each other.
Early the next morning they all headed off to the Orphanage, and after a bit of bribery and diplomacy, they managed to talk their way inside. They had a rather short stay in the orphanage because after only asking a few questions they decided to split up. The monk and the rogue were going to look around while the wizard and the barbarian would stay and talk to Gretchyn. As the rogue and monk are passing Gretchyn to go look around, the rogue decides he wants his bribe money back and tries to steal Gretchyn's coin purse. Failed to overcome the DC, she noticed, they were kicked out of the orphanage. A few failed bribe attempts and a failed diplomacy check once outside, and their time in the orphanage was done.
The rogue and the barbarian begin to have an argument while the wizard suggests they go and talk to Ghelves (only bit of information they actually managed to retrieve). Takes roughly an hour (game time) to get there and the rogue and the barbarian argue the whole way. Once at Ghelves the party acted how I thought they would. They began by questioning him rather sternly before accusing him, ultimately intimidating him into a shaking mess on the floor. The rogue and the monk managed to notice him trying to indicate something and went around to investigate his shop while the barbarian and wizard continued their scare tactics. A few failed checks later and no one notices either the Skulk or the secret door, however the rogue tries his luck with the locked/trapped chest in the bedroom. He rolls a nat 20 to overcome the lock DC, but missed the trap and took some damage. He then spends some rather interesting time trying to come up with ways to get this drawer open. In the meantime the barbarian has spotted the secret door (stopped yelling at Ghelves for a second). And the skulk started combat. A few nice shoot and moves to open the first 3 rounds (miss, miss, miss, but he stayed hidden). before an arrow hit the monk and the skulk died shortly after.
In to Jzadirune we go.
On their way down I over emphasized the trap on the stairs and ended up getting both the rogue and barbarian to check it out. They then thought it was a secret door and the barbarian triggered the trap after telling the party to climb back up the stairs (ultimately sending the "safe" party members tumbling down the stairs onto the barbarian). I laughed.
The party managed to do rather well here. Triggering every trap then went across, finding the map room, and sealing the only gear door that was jammed open. The rogue also failed to open all gear doors he tried. However they chose to sit/pace/talk in a room with a secret door, so I gave them all another check to notice it (which they did this time). They then proceeded down a few more hallways and through a few more secret doors before arriving half-dead face-to-face with the common raggamoffyn. The wizard used detect magic to find items of interest in the room, and when seeing some he jumped in first. One shot to the already wounded wizard and we was bleeding on the floor - combat starts. A few rounds of misses both ways before the raggamoffyn manages hit the barbarian, wrap him up, and dominate him. The barbarian then drops the monk with 1 shot (rolled max). It's now Barbarian on Rogue - Raggamoffyn had 4hp, barbarian had 2hp, rogue had 3hp. Barbarian critically misses and throws his dwarven waraxe away. A few more misses before the rogue manages to hit the raggamoffyn for exactly 4 damage, dropping both the raggamoffyn and the barbarian and leaving him standing alone in a room.
The party then used all their potions given to them by the church of St Cuthbert, looted the room, and we called it a night.
All and all they did better then I thought they would, but they are starting to see why I said it was going to be tough :)
Looking forward to next week when they actually have a healer.
Cheers,
Ulf.