Our 2nd session was last night. I previously detailed our first session here. Thanks for the tips related to blood money that folks gave me yesterday. Here I'll outline what happened in the session last night.
My party started off the 2nd session on the morning, around noon, of their 2nd day in Ravengro. They had basically just dealt with the seeing of the first "V".
The ninja character tracked down the sheriff and offered him blood money to give to the family of the farmer he killed (see earlier posts if you're interested). The sheriff was horrified, refused it, gave the PC a lot of crap about "that's not how we do things around here" and "you're not going to buy your way out of this murder". However, I let it go saying that Father Grimburrow had spoken with the sheriff and assured him that the farmer attacked first. The sheriff suggested the ninja PC leave town, to which he replied that he had a honor-bound duty to remain here for a month - to which the sheriff replied that he'd be "keeping an eye on [you]".
The ninja then went to talk with Kendra about having her give the money for him. There was a long discussion where basically Kendra was convinced through a series of Diplomacy roles and, frankly, good role playing from the player, that she would offer the money to the family as Kendra's own money, but it would be from the ninja. The ninja would then feel that his obligation was satisfied. I felt this was acceptable and let it go.
My intention is to have the dead farmer haunt this PC, but I didn't get the chance to make it happen last night. There was just too much else going on. You'll notice, perhaps, a lot of these suggestions from the other thread on blood money. Thanks all!
Much of the evening was taken up by role playing and Diplomacy roles to get into the town hall, and attempts to get into the Temple, to use their libraries. Twice the PCs tried to get into the town hall and only once succeeded. They got a bit more info about Harrowstone and I tossed that to them (printed out, paper clippings).
Several of the PCs explored the magic shop (Unfurling Scroll). I had a good time role playing the flesh golem manual being offered for sale. Very under the counter, very shady. The PCs were really taken aback by this offer for sale. I doubt they're going to buy it and take it to Lepistadt for the reward detailed on page 63 of HoH. Any tips on how to encourage that to happen? The scroll shop keeper was fun to role play. I let them try Diplomacy, failed, to use his library and then try and barter down his 10gp cost to use his library. It was enjoyable to play the "if the town folks even knew you were in here, I'd lose business" aspect, as basically I played him as a businessman looking to make a coin but at the same time towing the line between that and the suspicious nature of the town folk, himself included. When it was all said and done, the PCs didn't buy anything.
The gnome bard tried to work at the forge and couldn't get Jorfa to talk to him (really bad Diplomacy role). But he role played it so damn well, picked up a nail from the ground and complimented her on her dwarven craftsmanship, spoke to her in Dwarven, and arranged an appointment to come back the next day - I think that counts as a large Diplomacy bonus in my book and unless he rolls REALLY poorly in the next day, she'll let him work with her. He's interested in using her forge to do some gunsmithing.
The PCs spent quite a bit of time trying to break through the "defenses" of the Temple to get inside and get to their library. They got as far as learning that they have records that would be useful to examine, but a slightly low Diplomacy roll sent them packing. Again though, through frankly great role playing, I let them set up an appointment for the following day to meet and see the records.
Two of the PCs heard the event 2, The Skipping Song. These PCs actually spoke Varisian so I went ahead and gave them a printout of what the song meant. They tried to talk to the children, failed, sent them screaming, and instead went to ask Kendra about it. She basically told them the same thing that the children would have - it's been sung here "forever". The PCs are pretty freaked about the song contents. I read it aloud kind of creepily and it worked I think.
One time the bard character wanted to do some singing in the town square. It's funny, he basically walked right into Event 3. I had him start singing, via Perform, and then had a few local musicians join him. A villager or two were around dancing. The PC thought this was good, as he was winning over the locals a bit. Since this PC was alone, I went ahead and ran Event 3 - Hungry Stirges, but only had 1 Stinge attack. I also ran it very easily. Basically the stirge came in and started attacking a villager. When he stopped, the musicians ran, leaving the bard, the stirge, and the villager under attack. I let the bard beat on the stirge who just sat there con draining the villager. He killed it before the villager died, and then was able to role play getting her some help. This whole thing worked out very well.
The final other thing that happened was perhaps the most interesting. The magus PC, after seeing the V stuff on the Harrowstone Memorial, split from the party and wanted to check out this prison. So he went off alone (while the other PCs started to research what this place really was). He made it to the prison and then circled the outside. I kept trying to get him to climb the walls but he didn't. Eventually, back at the gate after a full circle, he peeked his head in and out a few times and decided to step in. I went ahead and ran the mind-effecting fear (he rolled a 3 on his will save!) and was shaken for 6 minutes! Alone, shaken, feeling claustrophobia and that his skin was on fire, he totally freaked and ran screaming back to the village. It was SO well done.
That night he stayed up drinking, heavily. When others went to bed he said his character fell asleep, drunk, in the library of the professors drinking brandywine. I wanted to run the Vision of Imprisonment optional event but I didn't want to do it in the library. Luckily he said that he woke up in the middle of the night and went to bed. Perfect! Now was my chance. So I ran the event just like in the module. It started when he looked at the window and the bars were there. He started looking around the room and I described it like the prison cell - just like in the module. Then he looked out of the window and I gave him the description of the vantage point of the town, and given his personal view of that earlier in the day plus a good Knowledge roll he knew what it was. He started to really freak out now and started to say what he was going to do and I interrupted him with the first letter of his name, written in blood, over his bed. He kept talking, then the next letter. The entire exchange from me to him, interrupting him, was totally effective. By the time it got a few letters in he of course knew what it was spelling and he awoke.
The PC then went and woke up the bard, asking him to wash it off w/ prestidigitation, under the auspices that he didn't want to deface the walls of this house he was staying in. But really, he said it was to see if another person saw the blood. They discussed this for a while, argued, woke others up, Kendra even woke and they ran interference so she wouldn't see it. It was all such great role playing by everyone involved.
We've now gone through 2 whole sessions where the players have not gone to the graveyard to dig up the tools in the crypt. They know about it, they even talked about it several times, but they are just having too much fun to do that yet. :)
It sounds like things are going great! I think you played out the consequences for the ninja in a balanced way -- he learned that there are consequences (and more to come!) but his character isn't crippled. You're doing a great job of playing out the town and the encounters in an organic way. It's inspiring -- I'm looking forward to our campaign start in about 10 days.
Keep the session reports coming! It's a big help, to me at least.
Thank you!
My campaign starts this week and thats exactly how I imagine it might run!
This is big help but also spoils my experience I hope to have to a certain extend.. not sure if I should continue reading your post but anyway really nice!!!
Heh. I would hope a post titled session report would scare away players. Maybe I should be more obvious.
Thanks for the kind words. I am thoroughly enjoying this adventure path. Our group has played together for years only doing home brewed stuff, mostly off the cuff, and this series in particular really gives us a lot to work with from a role playing perspective.
Not too much risk of spoiling anything from my perspective, since us GMs know all the campaign info, and you never know what your players will do. I'm finding it enormously helpful to see how other GMs are preparing and what their players are throwing at them. I just want to be as prepared as possible so my players have a good time.
I have five players in my group: a human (Varisian) barbarian (and eventually oracle); a human wizard; a half-elf (probably) cleric; a human ranger (and eventually alchemist); and a half-orc (swashbuckling) rogue. I'm trying to pressure them now to get me detailed character backgrounds so I can customize the campaign a bit more.
If that worked so well, then consider adding another vision later in the adventure (maybe after they enter Harrowstone).For instance: PC falls asleep, then "wakes" to see a strange man sitting in their room. It's The Splatter Man, but the PC doesn't know that. TSM has become aware of the PCs and is trying to probe them from a distance. He politely asks the PC, "What's your name?" Attempts to question him or engage in conversation will be met with, "Shouldn't we be propertly introduced first?" If the PC answers honestly, he'll say something like, "Seoni. S-E-O-N-I. From the Old Chelaxian _Saeoni_, a seabird. Lovely. Lovely." And smile, and slowly fade from view. If the PC attacks him, refuses to respond, or lies about her name, he smiles... and his skin shrivels and blackens, as if horribly burnt... and he disappears anyway.
YMMV. But if the players are liking it, pile on, say I.
Doug M.
Doug, that's a very clever idea. Thanks.
Once an NPC has gone mad, have another NPC start showing similar symptoms. The idea is to make it clear that if the PCs don't act, the whole town is going to go horribly insane, and fairly soon.
This is one particular bit that my campaign really needs. (1) urgency, (2) why should the PCs venture into Harrowstone, and (3) how does cleaning out Harrowstone help fulfill the obligation to the professor.
These ideas all help tie that together. I only wish we played more than once a week! :)