We had a new player this week: Danny. He had a lightfoot halfling rogue named Smeef. Shretz, another DM at the Isle of Games helped him create the character, and the Joseph helped level him up to 5. Having done parties with characters at different levels, I've decided not to allow it at a table I'm running. I have a feeling he hadn't played 5e before, so I hope diving in with both feet didn't spook him. He decided on the Arcan Trickster archetype, so he seemed confident in being able to play a more complex character.
To top it off, Ethan and Andrew returned tonight with Tarkir and Rolan, who also had to be leveled to 5. That totaled up to 9 players. It helped them handle the battles.
As I mentioned before, I pre-rolled the random encounters. One of the joys of being a DM is trying to get the random fall of dice to add up to a coherent or meaningful narrative. Or at least watch as players fill in the blanks on their own. I pre-rolled the encounters, but shifted the timing of one and spruced it up.
First, I had to introduce a new character. The Curse of Strahd has a hook tying into the Forgotten Realms factions appropriate for higher level characters, so I used that to draw in Smeef. The Harpers (his faction) were investigating children stolen by werewolves and taken into the Misty Forest near Daggerdale. So he had teamed up with other adventurers and explored the forest, until the mists separated him from the other adventurers and led him to the Old Svalich road, which led him to the Luna River Crossroads just west of Vallaki, where he met the current party travelling with Rictavio.
The crossroads sign had been damaged, but Lop fixed it with mending. Rictavio bid them farewell, following the sign to Lake Baratok, while the party continued to follow the road towards Krezk. Smeef recognized the symbol of Lathander on Tathora's livery, and decided to remain with his fellow Faerunians.
Not long afterwards, while travelling through the woods, a wolf the size of a grizzly bear stepped out of the mists. Amrus was acting as a scout at the time. He failed to properly hide from the other dire wolves in the area (there was a total of 5) but managed to notice them and warn the party, so there was no surprise. Of course, when I ran the first round I failed to remember that is how it happened, so he got a free sneak attack. The players didn't complain, and it probably wouldn't have mattered in the long run (probably).
Dire wolves, aside from being the emblem of House Stark (I'm ready o swear fealty to Sansa, Queen of the North, right until George R.R. Martin or the show writers decide to kill her) are what 4e would call skirmirshers: fast and tricksy. They have pack tactics, but without ranged weapons it isn't quite so broken. They also trip when they hit. Tarkir and Tathora managed to avoid being tripped, but Cugel and Rolan did not.
Rolan got to use his Druid circle feature to turn into a dire wolf during this battle. He even managed to turn the tables and trip another dire wolf. Tarkir, in the meantime, used searing smite, part of a new family of spells almost exclusively on the Paladin and Ranger spell lists that enhance the next attack. In this case, searing smite adds some extra fire damage to the initial attack and a DOT effect removed with a Con save. I think I failed to remember the effect, but again it won't matter in the long run.
Tathora tried to use her Channel Divinity to heal in an area, unfortunately I had to remind her it only brings a party member up to 1/2 their hit points, so the effect is better for a quick keeping someone from going down (and bring them back up after going down) rather than a top-off.
Cugel also broke out a new spell: major image to create a scary undead bear seeming to rise up out of the road. It allowed him to try to intimidate the wolves, but they have keen senses to help see through the illusion. However, he rolled well enough to spook the wolves closest to the illusion.
It became a little redundant after over half the pack died. I'm a firm believer in animals behaving like animals, and most animals faced with losing a large number of their group and being injured will flee if able.
They continued through the forest and to the Raven River Crossroads and followed the signs to the winery. The road led downhill and became a muddy trail. As the forest opened up to the mist shrouded vineyard valley, they found a corpse guarded by a pair of ghostly dogs. The dogs were initially friendly.
Then, before anyone could loot or take any other action, Cugel cast animate dead to raise the body as a zombie. This encounter, when originally rolled read "trinket," a random spooky object. I integrated it into an encounter from Fifth Edition Fantasy #7: Adventurer's Best Friend. The basic plot of that encounter is a party spotting a fallen adventurer killed by bandits on the road, his corpse guarded by the ghosts of his faithful hounds. I adjusted the plot a little: it was dead Vistana that the Martikovs in the Winery hired to take a message to Urwin the Innkeeper in Vallaki. Instead, he was killed by needle blights in service to the druids of Yester Hill, who had attacked the Winery a couple of days ago.
The idea behind the encounter is rather than "loot first, ask questions later," the typical adventurer approach, they're supposed to give the fallen young man a proper burial to appease the ghostly hounds. If they do loot, it provokes the dogs into attacking. So while the encounter doesn't mention specifically anything about animating the corpse instead, but I'm pretty sure it would count as "desecration," and would rile up the ghost dogs. As they moved to attack Cugel, the one responsible for desecrating their former master, the blights emerged from the woods and attacked.
The spectral hounds are kind of uninteresting monsters. Their defenses are low and their attacks are mediocre, but they have a boat load of hit points. The blights are minor enemies well suited to swarming and shooting. They have low hit points and defenses, don't hit often, but hit hard enough when they do hit.
The ghost dogs focused on Cugel, and in a remarkable show of solidarity, the party sided with him against the dogs. The exceptions were Lop, Ap, Tathora, and Tarkir. Lop and Ap broke out their brand new third level spells. Ap used wall of water to force the blights to clump up on either side of the party. Tarkir used his breath weapon on one clump. Ap used Melf's minute meteors, a spell which creates a bunch of small fireballs, and started shooting them at the blights. In the meantime, Amrus and Smeef focused on sneak attacking the doggies and Rolan used produce flame on them. The problem, though, is that they weren't vulnerable to fire. Tathora threw a spear at one.
When Cugel ran his zombie past its former pets and they refused to take opportunity attacks, the party finally picked up on what might be going on. Cugel opted to end his zombie spell after the party dropped one of the ghosts. Then they focused on the blights.
Ap used another third level spell: lightning bolt, and old standby that does lightning damage in a line. Tathora finally got to use Preserve Life on Tarkir, who had been swarmed by the blights, and Cugel, who had been the focus of the dogs' ire. Overall I was unimpressed with the meteors, but lightning bolt proved as effective a board clear as ever.
The fight over, Tathora examined the corpse and confirmed it had been killed by the blights. The remaining dog made a digging motion, and the party took the hint to provide the Vistana a proper burial. Lacking shovels, they gathered rocks for a cairn. At that point, the dog withdrew an object from a pouch on the Vistana's belt: scrap of paper wrapped around a box. The scrap of paper was a letter from Adrian Martikov to his brother Urwin asking for help. The box itself was the trinket: a locked box that plays a melody at night. Amrus was eager to open it, but Lop examined it first, and the group nixed that idea.
The finished the journey to the Winery, and met the Martikovs hiding out in a copse of trees nearby. They further explained their plight and offered to share their camp site with the party. We'll be picking up there at the beginning of next session.
Danny seemed interested in returning. If he does, it will probably work out fine since Joseph may have to drop out shortly.
Joseph, Will, and Alec were all eager to try out their new spells. I was a little surprised Kyla didn't use any of hers. Although with such a large party, she may not have needed to.
Although they're fun, the marathon combats can get a bit tiring to run, especially with such large groups. It is a bit of a struggle, since you don't ever want to turn away new players, but at some point you do have to say, "Sorry, my table's full." Meeting new players and introducing them to the game are the good part of events like encounters, but the over-flowing table moments and the shifting rosters are the challenges.
A part of me wants to just take a core group of players, tell them "your it, guys," and play another night when its less crowded and we can always use the private room. The store could even get credit for it on the Wizards event website. Of course, I've learned from experience coordinating schedules doesn't always work out. Plus, I like occasionally meeting new people.
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