We had last left our heroes on day 28 of a 60 day journey. We reached the next way point on our journey: the town near the ruins of Dragonspear Castle on 29 with no further incidents. It was a cold and rainy night, and all the inns in Dragonspear were full. I did some information gathering (in this case, a straight Charisma check), and learned that the Way Inn, further up the road would have vacancies.
We traveled out to the Way Inn, and found the tap room empty except for a lord and three dilettantes. According to the Innkeeper and Barkeeper, these four had booked out all the rooms and the stables for the night. We tried, unsuccessfully, to bargain with them for rooms for the travelers and stable space for the horses. When bargains and intimidation failed, we tried a little violence. The first round revealed that they were wielding poisoned weapons, which added a little extra damage, but nothing unmanageable.
The second round, however, they revealed that they had much more potent poisons on their weapons, and more than enough hit points to soak up a round of focused attacks. We ended up having to retreat. While Thok, Alek, and Corrin opted for peaceful retreat, Sandi and Lokeo took pot shots before running. Ultimately, the whole thing cost us 900 gold to get Censura's and Corrin's unconscious forms out of there. Sandi and Lokeo have, of course, committed the sin of angering the healer and the tank.
Ultimately, two horses died in the freezing rain without proper shelter that night, while the "dilettantes" with poisoned weapons jibed at us. They were actually 4 assassins, CR 8 NPCs. This turned out to be an unwinnable scenario, something I dislike in the extreme (probably because I feel I get enough of that in my real life without the need for it in the games I use to entertain myself), so I kind of had a sour taste in my mouth the rest of the night.
We started the fourth Tenday of travel with another round of DJ's Getting to Know You mini-game. This time, rather than roll, we would pick one of our background details: Personality Traits, Ideal, Bond, or Flaw, and use that to describe our interaction with one of the NPCs. Sean and Reese had yet to fill these in for Corrin and Lokeo, so the rest of us interacted with the NPCs while they worked out those details. We learned that Tyjit fights with a pair of daggers and hates bullies. We were unable to learn more about Oyn when Sandi tried to turn him against his new arguing partner, Censura. Thok shared a story about otyugh's (like non-aquatic versions of dianogas (the tentacle monster from the trash compactor in Star Wars)) with Leda Widris, one of the guards on the second wagons, who proved to be honest and courageous. Orvustia Esseren, another guard on the second wagon, was raised on a farm, too, and that this was her first adventure. I ended up talking to Edhelri, praising her leadership and while using Alek's ideal: responsibility and following reasonable authority. Rather than learning anything new, she offered me a side quest: find a buyer for her wood in Waterdeep, and I would get a 10% commission on the sale.
Otherwise, the 4th Tenday passed uneventfully. We reached the next settlement on the road, Daggerford, on Day 50. We made a 5th Getting to Know You roll. This one was done as a group Charisma check to learn more about the 7'5" Sulesdeg the Pole. While we did not manage to get him talking, he made an observation for us about a newcomer.
There were two newcomers that joined the caravan at Daggerford, actually. The first was a man dressed in woolen clothes and a hat. Sulesdeg said he spotted tattoos under the man's clothes and mentioned the wizards of Thay. This alleged red wizard was welcomed among the cultists immediately. Thay is ruled by a lich, an undead spellcaster, named Szass Tam, and if they're working with the Cult of the Dragon, that is Bad News.
The other traveler was a gnome woman named Jamna Gleamsilver. She was inquisitive, especially about the cultist wagons. I opted to share information about our suspicions, including the incident with the spilled treasure and the murdered family. I let her know about the corpses and suggested speak with dead, if she could make it available.
The final event involved two of the cultist guards apparently recognizing Lokeo. Lokeo used a spell called friends, which grants him advantage on a Charisma check, but the target becomes hostile towards him at some future time. While Lokeo also used it on his Getting to Know You roll, overall I would say it isn't a very good utility spell for an Eldritch Knight. Detect magic is definitely a better choice. Lokeo won't have to worry about those guards turning, hostile, however. Those two guards were found murdered the next morning.
More mysteries on our journey. Hopefully next time we'll make it to Waterdeep, the City of Splendors.
The Way Inn scenario was certainly a challenging encounter, but I can't agree with your assertion that it was unwinnable. I think the authors were challenging the players to think outside the box. I can envision a couple of creative approaches to the encounter that would have had a reasonable chance of succeeding. But when players limit themselves to the tired old tactic of, "Let's persuade the opponents to do what we want, and if they can't be persuaded, then let's kill them.", then yes, the encounter was unwinnable.
ReplyDeleteD. J.