Writeups

We finished up with Dave Guerrieri’s Finding Harmony (original). Geoff ran; me, Susan, Jeff, Emily, and Meaghan played. I bet you could see that list coming. I dug the plot, I didn’t mind the somewhat disjointed encounters, but I gotta say, that last fight, boy howdy. I think the thing is that Fell Taints sound cool. It’s a new, unusual low level monster. They do some neat stuff. They’re not overused. Except at this point having DMed fights with them twice and played a fight with them once, all in the space of a month? I can do without ‘em. ...

The second module of the day was The Missing and the Missed (original), which I ran. Emily, Susan, Meaghan, Geoff, and Jeff played. It’s a solid Waterdeep module with a pretty challenging pair of combats. The first one has the best use of minions I’ve seen to date: four minions who provide combat advantage against anyone they’re next to, and a bunch of normal monsters who get bonus damage with combat advantage. So I demonstrated the joy of focus fire by burning down Jeff’s Thick Eddie. I ran two leaders out of healing. Booyah. ...

Oh, I am so far behind. Bad blogger. Last Saturday (5/8) we trucked up to Wilmington to play LFR with Jeff and Emily and people as a housewarming thing. They have an awesome house! And it’s good for gaming. So we played three games. The first one was Silver Lining, with Jeff running. Emily, Susan, Meaghan, Geoff, and I played. Fun little H1 module. I played Cine, my eladrin noble psion who hasn’t been allowed out of the ancestral manse for 45 years. He’s a bit naive but very bright. I discovered the awesomeness of the telekinetic psion encounter power; being able to slide someone as a free action is superb. I’m definitely upgrading to twice per encounter. ...

Some would say that my players (Matt J., spayne, Darklord, Eltherian, dakhran, and Zalarian) were mad for playing High Infidelity on high with no leader. I say they had two paladins who didn’t stint on the healing, plus a pair of really good wizards, plus two excellent strikers. Yes, warlocks can do significant damage. I wouldn’t characterize the adventure as a romp, but they did a really good job of handling everything I threw at them. ...

I am not sure why Drawing a Blank (original) is a Core adventure, rather than a Dragon Coast adventure – it’s set in Westgate, after all, and it ties into a bunch of Dragon Coast story awards. Susan and I wanted to play it because we like Westgate, in fact. Matt J. was kind enough to DM on request, and we were joined by Newpaintbrush and choroidplx. This was another one of those bard/sorcerer/paladin/warlock ridiculously attractive groups. As a result, the module provided absolutely no opportunities to use social skills. I snickered. I also got more satisfactory use out of Reed’s bard multiclass, both with nick of time heals and skillful acrobatics. Fear the half-pint. ...

Crystal Clear (original) is the sequel to Sense of Wonder, and Collin and Ensa played that, so we wanted to do the followup. Happy day: Matt J. was willing to run it online! Our illustrious fellow players were Eltherian, Xalcairn, Kazordan, and Ryven. Good crowd, well-balanced party. Matt brings the tactical challenge in a way I find really enjoyable. Tough but fair! And he doesn’t slack off roleplay-wise either. The first fight was a tad dull only because Collin can’t pull out all his tricks against single opponents. The second fight was brutal – we lost initiative and people didn’t spread out very well. But thanks to Collin’s Heal training and Ensa’s quick heals, we survived. The last fight was less challenging and still fun. ...

[gallery] Fighting in a dungeon below Imdolphyn.

And at last, we reached the grand finale of the Embers of Dawn mini-campaign with Quench the Fire of the Raging God. That is pretty damned epic for a campaign that takes the PCs from level 1 to level 4. I, for one, am pooped. Although man, such a great group – I’d run for those guys forever. (Jon, Peter, Mark, Noah, and of course Susan.) The module… you know, it’s not as good as MINI 1-2 or MINI 1-5. Those two were the pinnacles for me. But it wasn’t bad at all. The combat with the slew of insubstantial monsters was tough and a bit grindy; the skill challenge that called for six successive Thievery checks would have been bad if I hadn’t modified it liberally. On the other hand, I like the opening sequence of investigations, I love the party, and the final fight is nicely epic. ...

On Saturday, Xalcairn ran The Thin Grey Line (original) for me, darksydex, Elden, Genolen, Neofax, and Blackmantle. It was nice and smooth and fun. We kind of floundered in the early portion of the module, thanks to a completely non-social party, but with liberal use of assists and lucky die rolls we worked through our tongue-tied problems. The combats, conversely, were not too bad at all. There’s an annoying sort of cliffhanger at the end. I guess DRAG 1-3 is the sequel? I’ll have to keep an eye out for that.

Did I run The Sea Drake (original) last night online? Yes I did! Chalk up another new module for me; I’d never played or run it before. My players were Xalcairn, Domingo, Dareus, Genolen, Tracker, and Zeitgeist. Good crowd, balanced party, fun times. I really dug the combats. Which is a good thing, since this is one of those modules with no skill challenges. I think the second roleplaying encounter in the beginning was a bit much; the author wanted to get some Moonshae Isles feel in there, but it’s kind of NPCs talking to NPCs blah blah. I maybe could have GMed it better face to face, not sure. ...