Tag: 4e

I needed to run something to get my slot score down a bit, and I always like running for Matt, so I asked him if he wanted an H2 and he said how about How To Hunt A Demon? Easy for me to run since I’d run it once before, so I said sure and that was that. I ran it on 10/7, with Matt, logopolis, Oskar581, Kazordan, Zalarian, and Gadunge.

We did not come close to a TPK this time. Good wizards, as always, make all the difference. Also, the third fight is easier if the PCs can maintain range – I think my earlier party had trouble because they engaged the enemy in the middle of the field. This meant the bad guys spent less time charging and got to do stuff other than basic melee attacks. On the other hand, I got to get off most of my sneaky gnoll tricks, which is always fun.

My first LFR game in October was Curse of the Queen of Thorns, on 10/3. I think I signed up for this because there was an open slot and they needed a defender, if I recall correctly. Martyr2 ran; my fellow players were Jay Ibero, Eltherian, logopolis, Blackmantle, and Trident. We had a balanced party and enough offensive firepower so that I got to pretty much slack off and relax as a defender. Fun game, and now Collin is a Knight of Cormyr, which is a bit perplexing for him.

Woo-hoo, more Nixie Queen! Peter ran; Susan, David D., Stacey, Justin K., and Nick S. played. Oh, and me, of course. Kevin rides again! Despite being level 3 and finally getting to use his treasured Vicious +2 Talenta Sharrash, he did not crit all night. So sad! But he made good use of his daily to finish off a very nasty quasit, and he set up the daily with Roar of Triumph, and I action pointed specifically so I could trigger Roar of Triumph with the quasit in mind. So I feel good about that.

Sometimes I think too much while I’m playing, yeah.

Cool stuff: Peter is running this big old four level dungeon as a living My Realms dealy-bopper. There are potentially multiple parties in the dungeon. Each of the first three levels has a touchstone; you can use the touchstone to teleport further as necessary. We poked a little bit into the second level, did not find the touchstone there, but will look more next time. Bits of the dungeon that get cleared out are clear for the next party who comes along, unless there’s been restocking, which will also happen sometimes. This is why the teleport is important.

Also cool: getting to play with Susan, which actually hasn’t happened in way too long. Like, all month. So that was awesome.

Raven Knights one! more! time!

This finished up my run of the Raven’s Bluff campaign. Susan, Hudson, Mark B., Jason B., and Colin played. I think everyone had a good time; I certainly did, despite being rather thrashed. This cold is sucking, let me tell you. 

The PCs were quite clever and came up with an idea unanticipated by either the module or by me. It didn’t work, due to factors beyond their knowledge, but the failure of the idea did reveal certain other things and before you could blink they were avoiding a certain unfortunate event. It worked out really well, and I was pleased to be able to reward cleverness without handing them everything on a silver platter. 

Yep, again! I think that makes the third time I’ve run and/or played What Storms May Come. Both times playing have been because I had a character who wanted to complete the quest, and I ran it by request, so hey.

This time was online, with Tsriel running. Matt, Jay Ibero, Dareus, Zalarian, Shamballa, and I played. We did something I really hadn’t expected: namely, took the baby into combat. Well. But given that we did a 1.5 round crush of the final encounter, I guess that was a reasonable choice. Also it means Collin has golden eyes, which fits nicely with the bear thing.

Cool/funny stuff that happened: Collin did 0 damage in the first fight. He spent a bunch of the second fight working his way down to the monsters, since Tsriel altered the map somewhat and removed the ice slides. In the third fight, he caused over 100 points of damage in a round for the first time ever, thanks to a couple of damaging zones provided by Matt’s character Luminos. And he hit level 12, so that’s satisfying.

Jason kindly agreed to finish up the Raven’s Bluff slot 0 for us, so we played down at Games & Stuff back last Sunday. Busy weekend – we had guests in from out of town, and so on and so forth – but I figured hey, worth a bit of extra effort and all. Plus I got to pick up the awesome Rules Compendium. Plus Kevin seemed likely to hit level 3.

Peter couldn’t make it, but that opened up a spot for Good Tony. Also playing: Mark B., Hudson, Jimmy, and Amanda. Unfortunately it was not the most sterling example of gaming ever; we just seemed to be on a different wavelength than Jason and I think everyone got a bit stressed. No biggie, sometimes bad games happen. In the end we failed to save the Cup of Truth but Kevin still hit level 3. I’m not even bummed that he can’t become a knight – it’s not his style.

Part 2 in my Return to Raven’s Bluff run! My players were, once more, Susan, Colin, Hudson, Jason B., and Mark B. Ravens Under the Midday Sun is more of a dungeon crawl – well, it’s almost completely a dungeon crawl, with a bit of investigatory roleplay on the tail end. I rather enjoyed it, but I don’t have a ton to say about it.

Hm. The skill challenge portion of the exploration could be better, I’ll say that. But I could have made it better myself if I’d done a bit of prep. The problem (for me) is that it’s all group checks, and all group checks are mandatory, which means it played out as narrative, “everyone roll X,” narrative, and so on. I could have handled it better by maybe giving everyone a round to make knowledge-ish checks, and then a round where everyone has to try and help in some way? Something like that. If I ever run it again, I’ll fiddle with it a bit.

The second module of the day was Twisted Roots Run Deep. Interesting times. Susan ran; you may not be surprised to learn that the players were me, Jimmy, Amanda, Hudson, Jason B., and Mark B. 

I like it when Susan runs urban modules, because she really brings the NPCs to life for me. There’s a moral question in the last fight, and I suspect the range of PC reactions may be a bit more varied than the author expected. I think, when all’s said and done, that it’s a touch darker than the general tone of the Forgotten Realms. Definitely a sharp lefthand turn from the What Storms May Come, which under certain circumstances has an orc carrying a baby into combat. So are kids safe in 4e fights? Um.

Man, that’s a good title for the adventure, though. I only just realized.