Dungeonland Part 0b, In which there are Final Exams
Previously on Dungeonland: Part 0a, In which the Stage is Set
We decided to do some test combats before starting up the first adventure for the game, the reasons are fourfold:
*These characters are supposed to have been training together for a while, it would be good to give them a chance to know each other both in personality and capability before the first adventure.
*It will be good for everyone to become familiar with the relevant rules for their character's capabilities, and for me to become familiar with all the rules.
*It gives the players a low-risk environment to try out experimental strategies, and see how they turn out, so they know whether those are worth attempting in the real game.
Threefold.
The in-game story for these is the group is going through a few final exercises and evaluations before being sent out on their first assignment.
So here our heroes are, in the Delver's Guildhouse, which is built into the cliff that underlays the High Town of Porto, in a small set of rooms set aside as a training area. Hiro and Haara each set something they're carring aglow with light.
They open a small door, after Tau checks it for traps, to find a pack of giant rats in the next room.
This combat was 4 weeks ago now, and I honestly don't remember much about it. It took quite a while, with a lot of flipping through the books, and people forgetting who they were and stuff like that.
The combination of the narrow entry way and the low hit point foes meant that mostly the front rank of rats moved forward and the front rank of party members killed them; or occasionally the front rank of party members moved forward and killed the front rats. A lot of the party didn't get to be very effective in this fight. DM's Note: if there are large groups of fragile enemies, don't constrain access to them.
Eventually, there was a large pile of dead rats.
This is where we called the first session. We picked out with some more tests two weeks later.
We reconvened with a large pile of dead rats. Someone suggested that they should avoid the meatloaf in the Guild cafeteria for a while.
Tyra, having grown bored with the rats, has started wandering around the room, and, dwarf that she is, notices something odd about the stonework of the southern wall. She suspects a secret door, and attempts to open it. No one else notices what she's doing because she's wandering around in complete darkness on that side of the room, Haara and Hiro are still on the other side of the door frame with the light sources, and only a portion of the middle of the room is lit.
Perhaps fortunately for her, the stone, not the mechanics are her specialty, and the trick to opening the door eludes her. She calls everyone over. Tau decides he'd like some back up and some light before opening the door. Tau hits the hidden trigger, causing a twenty foot section of the wall to drop down into the floor.
On the other side is a large goblinoid, 6 feet tall, broad-shouldered and hulking, with huge white oval eyes: a bugbear, a fear-hunter, a thing that goes bump in the night. It is holding a shield and a nasty looking morningstar.
The party rush the bugbear, the melee quickly surrounding it, setting up flanking bonuses, and Tau's sneak attack. Meanwhile the ranged hit it with rocks, slung bullets, and magic missiles. The ranged are still struggling to get clear shots around their teammates (other than Hiro's magic missiles, which of course strike unerringly), but they get a few good shots in.
The highlight of the combat is Çifro deciding to attempt a disarm against the bugbear. Without special training (Feat: Improved Disarm), you have to let down your defenses to attempt a disarm (provoking an Attack of Oppurtunity). The bugbear misses (IIRC) Çifro, and Çifro goes in to relieve the bugbear of his morningstar.
A natural 1. We're playing with critical fumbles occur only on a double natural 1 (heroes shouldn't trip over their feet on 5% of all attacks the make, that's farcical, not epic), and Çifro manages not to hit himself in the face with his own bastard sword. However, when the two weapons lock, the bugbear wrenches Çifro's sword out of his hands, instead of the other way around (if you fail a disarm by more than 5, you are disarmed instead).
The bugbear takes more punishment from the massed heroes, minus a few hits it manages to catch on its shield. It is still standing.
Çifro's turn comes around again. He briefly considers drawing his dagger and attempting the disarm again, so as not to provoke an attack of oppurtunity by reaching down to pick up his sword. But wait, the disarm is already going to provoke one, so if you bet the bugbear doesn't have the reflexes to make take advantage of both lapses (Feat: Combat Reflexes), there's nothing lost by getting back his sword first. A fateful decision.
Çifro stoops down to retrieve his sword from near the bugbear's feet. It takes the oppurtunity to whack Çifro resoundingly on the head, dropping him to exactly 0 hit points. Çifro is seeing stars, and wobbling a little, but manages to stand back up with his sword.
(At 0 hit points he's still concious and can still act, but any strenuous action will cause him to lose 1 hit point, dropping him to -1 at which point he is unconcious and bleeding to death).
Çifro takes a strenuous action: he attempts the disarm again. He succeeds! He knocks away the bugbear's morningstar, and then promtly collapses in a heap at its feet, and starts exsanguinating.
The bugbear, with this dubious example before him, reaches down to pick up his own weapon. Into this lapse of defense (he provokes an attack of opportunity from all the remaining melee), come Mousey's battle-axe, Adelina's rapier, and Tau's short sword. The bugbear does not survive this.
Nice :)
Haara steps in to tend the wounded, starting with Çifro. She casts rebuke death to prevent him from bleeding to death. Given Haara's second domain of Water, I decided her healing spells had a water special effect. In this context, the party decided, her rebuke death has the special effect of spritzing Çifro with a spray bottle: "Bad Çifro. No dying!"
And, as predicted many weeks ago, Çifro begins his career as the party straight man ;)
The party's supervisor, a middle-aged half-elf named Osvaldo, comes out to congratulate and critique them.
"Çifro, try to keep ahold of your sword."
"Noted, sir."
He proclaims them to have succeeded quite well, and that they are now ready to for the first assignment. Everyone cheers. Adelina cheers wildly.
To be Continued in: Part 1a, In which RV5 is Entered
We decided to do some test combats before starting up the first adventure for the game, the reasons are fourfold:
*These characters are supposed to have been training together for a while, it would be good to give them a chance to know each other both in personality and capability before the first adventure.
*It will be good for everyone to become familiar with the relevant rules for their character's capabilities, and for me to become familiar with all the rules.
*It gives the players a low-risk environment to try out experimental strategies, and see how they turn out, so they know whether those are worth attempting in the real game.
Threefold.
The in-game story for these is the group is going through a few final exercises and evaluations before being sent out on their first assignment.
So here our heroes are, in the Delver's Guildhouse, which is built into the cliff that underlays the High Town of Porto, in a small set of rooms set aside as a training area. Hiro and Haara each set something they're carring aglow with light.
They open a small door, after Tau checks it for traps, to find a pack of giant rats in the next room.
This combat was 4 weeks ago now, and I honestly don't remember much about it. It took quite a while, with a lot of flipping through the books, and people forgetting who they were and stuff like that.
The combination of the narrow entry way and the low hit point foes meant that mostly the front rank of rats moved forward and the front rank of party members killed them; or occasionally the front rank of party members moved forward and killed the front rats. A lot of the party didn't get to be very effective in this fight. DM's Note: if there are large groups of fragile enemies, don't constrain access to them.
Eventually, there was a large pile of dead rats.
This is where we called the first session. We picked out with some more tests two weeks later.
We reconvened with a large pile of dead rats. Someone suggested that they should avoid the meatloaf in the Guild cafeteria for a while.
Tyra, having grown bored with the rats, has started wandering around the room, and, dwarf that she is, notices something odd about the stonework of the southern wall. She suspects a secret door, and attempts to open it. No one else notices what she's doing because she's wandering around in complete darkness on that side of the room, Haara and Hiro are still on the other side of the door frame with the light sources, and only a portion of the middle of the room is lit.
Perhaps fortunately for her, the stone, not the mechanics are her specialty, and the trick to opening the door eludes her. She calls everyone over. Tau decides he'd like some back up and some light before opening the door. Tau hits the hidden trigger, causing a twenty foot section of the wall to drop down into the floor.
On the other side is a large goblinoid, 6 feet tall, broad-shouldered and hulking, with huge white oval eyes: a bugbear, a fear-hunter, a thing that goes bump in the night. It is holding a shield and a nasty looking morningstar.
The party rush the bugbear, the melee quickly surrounding it, setting up flanking bonuses, and Tau's sneak attack. Meanwhile the ranged hit it with rocks, slung bullets, and magic missiles. The ranged are still struggling to get clear shots around their teammates (other than Hiro's magic missiles, which of course strike unerringly), but they get a few good shots in.
The highlight of the combat is Çifro deciding to attempt a disarm against the bugbear. Without special training (Feat: Improved Disarm), you have to let down your defenses to attempt a disarm (provoking an Attack of Oppurtunity). The bugbear misses (IIRC) Çifro, and Çifro goes in to relieve the bugbear of his morningstar.
A natural 1. We're playing with critical fumbles occur only on a double natural 1 (heroes shouldn't trip over their feet on 5% of all attacks the make, that's farcical, not epic), and Çifro manages not to hit himself in the face with his own bastard sword. However, when the two weapons lock, the bugbear wrenches Çifro's sword out of his hands, instead of the other way around (if you fail a disarm by more than 5, you are disarmed instead).
The bugbear takes more punishment from the massed heroes, minus a few hits it manages to catch on its shield. It is still standing.
Çifro's turn comes around again. He briefly considers drawing his dagger and attempting the disarm again, so as not to provoke an attack of oppurtunity by reaching down to pick up his sword. But wait, the disarm is already going to provoke one, so if you bet the bugbear doesn't have the reflexes to make take advantage of both lapses (Feat: Combat Reflexes), there's nothing lost by getting back his sword first. A fateful decision.
Çifro stoops down to retrieve his sword from near the bugbear's feet. It takes the oppurtunity to whack Çifro resoundingly on the head, dropping him to exactly 0 hit points. Çifro is seeing stars, and wobbling a little, but manages to stand back up with his sword.
(At 0 hit points he's still concious and can still act, but any strenuous action will cause him to lose 1 hit point, dropping him to -1 at which point he is unconcious and bleeding to death).
Çifro takes a strenuous action: he attempts the disarm again. He succeeds! He knocks away the bugbear's morningstar, and then promtly collapses in a heap at its feet, and starts exsanguinating.
The bugbear, with this dubious example before him, reaches down to pick up his own weapon. Into this lapse of defense (he provokes an attack of opportunity from all the remaining melee), come Mousey's battle-axe, Adelina's rapier, and Tau's short sword. The bugbear does not survive this.
Nice :)
Haara steps in to tend the wounded, starting with Çifro. She casts rebuke death to prevent him from bleeding to death. Given Haara's second domain of Water, I decided her healing spells had a water special effect. In this context, the party decided, her rebuke death has the special effect of spritzing Çifro with a spray bottle: "Bad Çifro. No dying!"
And, as predicted many weeks ago, Çifro begins his career as the party straight man ;)
The party's supervisor, a middle-aged half-elf named Osvaldo, comes out to congratulate and critique them.
"Çifro, try to keep ahold of your sword."
"Noted, sir."
He proclaims them to have succeeded quite well, and that they are now ready to for the first assignment. Everyone cheers. Adelina cheers wildly.
To be Continued in: Part 1a, In which RV5 is Entered