terrycloth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
terrycloth) wrote2008-07-21 12:07 am
terrycloth) wrote2008-07-21 12:07 am
Entry tags:
Around in Circles
We played some more 4e D+D today, delving not deeper into the dungeon, but sort of to the left and right.
We played through three more encounters (after the first one last week) and still haven't used any daily powers or action points, which is starting to piss the GM off, and worry me. One of the big worries I had about 4e was all the 'once per day' things which, traditionally, I'm too stingy to ever use. Apparently, I'm too stingy to ever use them in 4th edition too.
After taking out the guards near the entrance [last week], the party had a slight crisis of leadership, in which three separate people (Bore, Alaric, and Shanarea) argued with each other that the best course of action was to ignore the very loud mining noises from the closed door to the left, and instead investigate the open hallway to the right, which was more likely to have guards in it who'd heard the fight. Eventually, they agreed to agree, and moved on down the open hallway.
The hallway led to more doors, so Shanarea (the ranger) snuck up ahead and listened at them, and heard guards behind one. The party snuck up on the door, and flung it open, taking the goblins by no surprise whatsoever because Bore was not very stealthy.
Me: "Does the 'T' on that box stand for 'treasure'?"
Josh: "I think it just stands for 'table'. But nice one on the wishful thinking."
GM: "Actually, it's a torture device."
Me: "I'm guessing the 'M' isn't 'money' then."
GM: "Iron Maiden."
The room was a chamber of horrors -- a brazier for branding, a torture table for strapping people to while you branded them, a cage where one of the prisoners could be held and made to watch you brand his friends, and an iron maiden sort of off to the side. Also, goblins -- three of the crossbow-bastards who'd been so nasty in the entryway, and one goblin soldier who'd been significantly less nasty, off to the side. Oh, and the torturer, dual-wielding red-hot branding irons.
Shanarea fired two arrows into the room, and took out one of the crossbow-goblins instantly [by rolling a critical hit on one, and max damage on the other, plus max damage on hunter's quarry -- sheesh!]. No one else was able to react before the goblins, so she took a bunch of bolts and javelins in response. The torturer hung back, though, looking like he was waiting for something. For something that never happened, since he didn't react when Ariel [the cleric standing in for Vex, the warlord Shawn is supposedly playing if he ever shows up] and Bore advanced a little bit into the room and started picking at the soldier, while the rest of the party pelted the enemy ranged fighters with their own ranged attacks.
On his next turn he charged around the table and tried to bull-rush Ariel into the iron maiden, but failed miserably [rolling a 1]. Meanwhile, Sam and Shanarea and Alaric had flanked the crossbowmen and killed off another one...then Shanarea moved around to get a better shot at the soldier, while Bore and Ariel melee'd the torturer.
The last crossbowman, the last goblin standing, was hiding in a cage that 'didn't provide cover' -- people had been attacking (and missing) him periodically the whole fight, but now he was the only one left, so Bore charged over to finish him off.
GM: "You can't attack him through the bars!"
Me: "I thought they didn't provide cover?"
GM: "Not for arrows, but you can't swing your axe through them."
Me: "Well, okay, I'll go *walk through the cage door* to hit him. This is better anyway, I'm blocking the doorway so there's nowhere he can run to use his stupid crossbow without drawing AoOs."
GM: "He shifts out of the cage past you and locks the door, trapping you in the cage."
Me: "What?! That's not even legal. You can't shift diagonally through doors -- that's why you can block doorways."
GM: "The module says that's his tactic, so damn it he can do it!"
Josh: "It doesn't really matter since it's not his turn yet. Alaric and Shanarea get to go before the goblins."
...which meant he was really, really dead before getting to try that tactic, since technically Sam also got to go, and each of them did enough damage to finish him off.
They heard a whimpering from the cages in the back hallway of the prison, and freed... a goblin? The goblin promised to be their servant and carry treasure for them and cook their meals if they'd let him go. No one wanted him carrying their treasure or cooking their meals. But they didn't want to just kill him out of hand (except for the dwarf) so they decided to let him travel with them, in return for him telling them where the 'treasure room' and the 'big boss' were, so that they could be sure to fight through the dungeon in the proper order.
The treasure room, the goblin explained as they got close, was the room they'd heard the noisy digging in. "We've been digging for treasure in there for weeks! We're sure to find some treasure soon."
...so on second throught, they went to go fight the boss.
The door to the boss's room opened to a long hallway, so Shanarea crept down it to find a guard room with a pair of guards bickering, two curtained-off hallways, and a big bell for the guards to ring. So she stole the bell while the goblins were distracted, then signalled the party to attack, by firing two arrows into the nearer goblin's chest.
As the rest of the party barreled noisily down the hallway, one of the goblins reached for the bell -- which was gone -- and instead ran to the curtains and shrieked, "INTRUDERS! REPEL THE INTUDERS!"
GM: "I'm not really sure what the bell was for, actually. It's not like the reinforcements are far enough away that they can't hear a goblin yelling."
Regardless, the party slaughtered both guards handily before reinforcements could arrive, and arranged themselves to guard the curtained off hallways and peek through carefully. Which put them in a pretty good position to defend against the enemy charge -- although it would be better if the enemies were forced to come through the curtains, since they blocked line of effect and ranged attacks (but not melee).
So the party backed up into the hallways behind them, and arranged themselves to receieve a charge. The goblins charged! First, a wave of minions (Bore and Sam had taken out a few before this, but there were still plenty left), the last two of which held the line for long enough that the non-minion warriors could run up. The first set were cut down almost instantly by the party's formation, but there was a second set to block... and a clanking sound and the curtains fell, and the Boss Goblin pointed his wicked-looking crossbow at them from down the hall, realized that all his goblins were dead except for two, and turned and bolted.
After taking care of the remaining linebackers, the party tried to chase him, but he was gone! Through the secret door Ariel found. They did get his treasure, at least, since he hadn't had time to retrive it from the locked chest. They decided not to follow him at speed, and instead rest and loot the room, since he had enough of a lead on them that he'd almost certainly be able to reach reinforcements before they could catch up.
So after resting, they headed down the secret tunnel, opened the secret door at the far end, and found themselves... um... back at the entrance, next to the door leading to the treasure room. Oh, to hell with it. EVERYBODY DIES.
Once more, Shanarea snuck up to peek into the treasure room and assess the enemy forces -- two guard drakes and three crossbowmen. Easy peasy, as long as they didn't let the drakes join up. The room was weird, though -- most of it was a 10' deep pit, with shaky bridges leading between islands of raised ground, one of which was the entrance.
Again, she signalled the attack by firing her bow, and the rest of the party charged to support her. This time, the enemies were a little slower off the bat, and the combined ranged fire took out one of the guard drakes before it could so much as bark. Bore charged out into the room to draw fire (while going total defense), and when the other guard drake ran up a ramp to attack him, Ariel charged to block it. So Bore leapt down into the pit and charged one of the crossbowmen, and after taking out the drake the rest of the party plinked the other two to death too.
And sure enough, no treasure, except for this weird-looking stick -- hey, another wand +1! Since Sam already had one, Alaric took it.
The boss obviously hadn't gone that way, since the diggers hadn't been alerted -- instead, he'd almost certainly gone down the stairs they'd ignored to take out the obvious 'threat' first. Their goblin servant told them that down that way were 'creepy crawlies'. Joy.
last session | next session
We played through three more encounters (after the first one last week) and still haven't used any daily powers or action points, which is starting to piss the GM off, and worry me. One of the big worries I had about 4e was all the 'once per day' things which, traditionally, I'm too stingy to ever use. Apparently, I'm too stingy to ever use them in 4th edition too.
After taking out the guards near the entrance [last week], the party had a slight crisis of leadership, in which three separate people (Bore, Alaric, and Shanarea) argued with each other that the best course of action was to ignore the very loud mining noises from the closed door to the left, and instead investigate the open hallway to the right, which was more likely to have guards in it who'd heard the fight. Eventually, they agreed to agree, and moved on down the open hallway.
The hallway led to more doors, so Shanarea (the ranger) snuck up ahead and listened at them, and heard guards behind one. The party snuck up on the door, and flung it open, taking the goblins by no surprise whatsoever because Bore was not very stealthy.
Me: "Does the 'T' on that box stand for 'treasure'?"
Josh: "I think it just stands for 'table'. But nice one on the wishful thinking."
GM: "Actually, it's a torture device."
Me: "I'm guessing the 'M' isn't 'money' then."
GM: "Iron Maiden."
The room was a chamber of horrors -- a brazier for branding, a torture table for strapping people to while you branded them, a cage where one of the prisoners could be held and made to watch you brand his friends, and an iron maiden sort of off to the side. Also, goblins -- three of the crossbow-bastards who'd been so nasty in the entryway, and one goblin soldier who'd been significantly less nasty, off to the side. Oh, and the torturer, dual-wielding red-hot branding irons.
Shanarea fired two arrows into the room, and took out one of the crossbow-goblins instantly [by rolling a critical hit on one, and max damage on the other, plus max damage on hunter's quarry -- sheesh!]. No one else was able to react before the goblins, so she took a bunch of bolts and javelins in response. The torturer hung back, though, looking like he was waiting for something. For something that never happened, since he didn't react when Ariel [the cleric standing in for Vex, the warlord Shawn is supposedly playing if he ever shows up] and Bore advanced a little bit into the room and started picking at the soldier, while the rest of the party pelted the enemy ranged fighters with their own ranged attacks.
On his next turn he charged around the table and tried to bull-rush Ariel into the iron maiden, but failed miserably [rolling a 1]. Meanwhile, Sam and Shanarea and Alaric had flanked the crossbowmen and killed off another one...then Shanarea moved around to get a better shot at the soldier, while Bore and Ariel melee'd the torturer.
The last crossbowman, the last goblin standing, was hiding in a cage that 'didn't provide cover' -- people had been attacking (and missing) him periodically the whole fight, but now he was the only one left, so Bore charged over to finish him off.
GM: "You can't attack him through the bars!"
Me: "I thought they didn't provide cover?"
GM: "Not for arrows, but you can't swing your axe through them."
Me: "Well, okay, I'll go *walk through the cage door* to hit him. This is better anyway, I'm blocking the doorway so there's nowhere he can run to use his stupid crossbow without drawing AoOs."
GM: "He shifts out of the cage past you and locks the door, trapping you in the cage."
Me: "What?! That's not even legal. You can't shift diagonally through doors -- that's why you can block doorways."
GM: "The module says that's his tactic, so damn it he can do it!"
Josh: "It doesn't really matter since it's not his turn yet. Alaric and Shanarea get to go before the goblins."
...which meant he was really, really dead before getting to try that tactic, since technically Sam also got to go, and each of them did enough damage to finish him off.
They heard a whimpering from the cages in the back hallway of the prison, and freed... a goblin? The goblin promised to be their servant and carry treasure for them and cook their meals if they'd let him go. No one wanted him carrying their treasure or cooking their meals. But they didn't want to just kill him out of hand (except for the dwarf) so they decided to let him travel with them, in return for him telling them where the 'treasure room' and the 'big boss' were, so that they could be sure to fight through the dungeon in the proper order.
The treasure room, the goblin explained as they got close, was the room they'd heard the noisy digging in. "We've been digging for treasure in there for weeks! We're sure to find some treasure soon."
...so on second throught, they went to go fight the boss.
The door to the boss's room opened to a long hallway, so Shanarea crept down it to find a guard room with a pair of guards bickering, two curtained-off hallways, and a big bell for the guards to ring. So she stole the bell while the goblins were distracted, then signalled the party to attack, by firing two arrows into the nearer goblin's chest.
As the rest of the party barreled noisily down the hallway, one of the goblins reached for the bell -- which was gone -- and instead ran to the curtains and shrieked, "INTRUDERS! REPEL THE INTUDERS!"
GM: "I'm not really sure what the bell was for, actually. It's not like the reinforcements are far enough away that they can't hear a goblin yelling."
Regardless, the party slaughtered both guards handily before reinforcements could arrive, and arranged themselves to guard the curtained off hallways and peek through carefully. Which put them in a pretty good position to defend against the enemy charge -- although it would be better if the enemies were forced to come through the curtains, since they blocked line of effect and ranged attacks (but not melee).
So the party backed up into the hallways behind them, and arranged themselves to receieve a charge. The goblins charged! First, a wave of minions (Bore and Sam had taken out a few before this, but there were still plenty left), the last two of which held the line for long enough that the non-minion warriors could run up. The first set were cut down almost instantly by the party's formation, but there was a second set to block... and a clanking sound and the curtains fell, and the Boss Goblin pointed his wicked-looking crossbow at them from down the hall, realized that all his goblins were dead except for two, and turned and bolted.
After taking care of the remaining linebackers, the party tried to chase him, but he was gone! Through the secret door Ariel found. They did get his treasure, at least, since he hadn't had time to retrive it from the locked chest. They decided not to follow him at speed, and instead rest and loot the room, since he had enough of a lead on them that he'd almost certainly be able to reach reinforcements before they could catch up.
So after resting, they headed down the secret tunnel, opened the secret door at the far end, and found themselves... um... back at the entrance, next to the door leading to the treasure room. Oh, to hell with it. EVERYBODY DIES.
Once more, Shanarea snuck up to peek into the treasure room and assess the enemy forces -- two guard drakes and three crossbowmen. Easy peasy, as long as they didn't let the drakes join up. The room was weird, though -- most of it was a 10' deep pit, with shaky bridges leading between islands of raised ground, one of which was the entrance.
Again, she signalled the attack by firing her bow, and the rest of the party charged to support her. This time, the enemies were a little slower off the bat, and the combined ranged fire took out one of the guard drakes before it could so much as bark. Bore charged out into the room to draw fire (while going total defense), and when the other guard drake ran up a ramp to attack him, Ariel charged to block it. So Bore leapt down into the pit and charged one of the crossbowmen, and after taking out the drake the rest of the party plinked the other two to death too.
And sure enough, no treasure, except for this weird-looking stick -- hey, another wand +1! Since Sam already had one, Alaric took it.
The boss obviously hadn't gone that way, since the diggers hadn't been alerted -- instead, he'd almost certainly gone down the stairs they'd ignored to take out the obvious 'threat' first. Their goblin servant told them that down that way were 'creepy crawlies'. Joy.
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