Jair Barik
2011-11-12, 06:28 PM
Okay then, after longing to do so for some time I have finally got an IRL group to play through the red hand of doom with! (yay)
Now I know at least one of my players frequents these forums (though generally in structured games and friendly banter) so if people could refrain from any spoilers that would be much appreciated. Currently we are 4 sessions in with 2 sessions of character gen and 2 of gaming (well, 1 and a bit more like but I'll get to that). So far things are going pretty well, some of the players are a bit silly though I anticipated this and am okay with it.
Session 1
This session was recruitment and character concept generation. In the end I had 7 players (a little more than anticipated but didn't want to turn some people down) and the rulebooks for 3.5 and pathfinder. At this time I will point out that I have never played pathfinder but on account of its popularity at our gamesoc bought a copy of the main rulebook in case player prefrence was with that (which it was). Without too many rules changes though and a decent system mastery/knowledge of 3.5 my inexperience with pathfinder hasn't proved to be problematic. More interestingly though most of the players are of varying levels of experience with roleplays/the system.
Going round the table I had everyone introduce themselves and state what sort of character they would like to play. This produced the following list.
Player 1-Relatively experienced with pathfinder and roleplays in general, wanted to play a healer, leaning towards Druid.
Player 2-Played with in the past using the Serenity system. Wanted to play someone who hits things close up.
Player 3-Also wanted to play melee some RP experience. Initially interested in warforged but I had stated that various more 'exotic' races weren't going to be used on account of people being quite new and it would be weird in the setting. He then asked for a dragonborn which I allowed as it fits the module.
Player 4-A little roleplay experience as far as I can tell. Wanted to play a caster, leaning towards sorcerer.
Player 5-No roleplay experience but very interested. Opted to go for a rogue.
Player 6-A 4th ed player, wanted to go Eladrhin caster, possibly wizard. I convinced him to go for a more typical race (Eladrhin being very different in this edition) and he settled on a high elf.
Player 7-Experienced roleplayer, decided on bard.
Giving various setting information and such like to help with character concepts we eventually came to rolling up stats. Each player rolling a set of 4d6 and picking the three highest with the 6 best sets being the scores everyone would start with (distributed as they saw fit). After several sets of trult atrocious stats we came up with the following array.
13, 13, 13, 9, 15, 16 arranged in any order.
Session 2
Having chatted to some of the group about characters in the week between sessions we did some proper character gen this week. Some people had sheets printed off to fill in with certain details already completed to some degree. Races, classes stats, skill points, spell lists, special abilities and feats were all filled in and we agreed upon how the players would know each other/why they would be adventuring on the way to Drellin's ferry. By the end of the session everything was complete except equipment lists which I informed the players they could message me about if they weren't certain and I would sort it out for them based on roughly what they wanted their characters to have.
So the party was as follows.
Player 1-Korthia, female human cleric of Kord
Player 2-Iskander, male human fighter dual wielding weapons.
Player 3-Drake, male dragonborn (formerly human) paladin of Bahumat
Player 4-Martin, male human Sorcerer with an arcane heritage
Player 5-Olmrocgel, male human rogue
Player 6-Vaerlan, male elven evoker
Player 7-Mabonchudh, male human bard
Korthia and Drake had recieved messages from their orders informing them of ill omens to be investigated in Elsir Vale. Iskander and Martin were mercenaries from within the vale returning home after a job abroad and picking up a new job investigating from Lord Jaarmath. Mabon and Olm were pardoned from various trangressions so long as they helped look into things and Vaerlan had come to explore Rhest for scholarly reasons, settling on Vrath keep instead as apparently Rhest was dangerous.
A few other notes.
-Drake has the heart aspect (what kind of lame power is heart anyway?)
-Iskander is slightly racist towards Elves.
-Vaerlan is slightly racist towards Iskander. More importantly though he wears red robes, has purple hair, a pompous attitude and insists on be called V for short, its strange but I think I know this guy from womewhere:smallamused:
Session 3
After a late start it turned out we were a player down (Martin's player having had to go to a friends party) and that half the group didn't have equipment lists. After considering postponing till next week we decided to press on anyway in order to avoid the game falling apart before it had even started and so formed quick mock up equipment lists for those who didn't have them (whatever weapons/combat trinkets they were likely to take but none of the little things like camping gear and so on). We then began with a quick recap of what was going on and the party walking down the road towards Drellin's Ferry.
After letting the players roleplay things up a little (Korthia and Mabon quickly emerging as the straight men of the party with the 'conflict' between Iskander and V quickly emerging) I sprung the first encounter upon the players. This was all we had time for in the session but we managed to complete it and it reinforced my notions that things would indeed need to be strengthened up a little for the party size but not quite as much as the forum handbook suggests (the groups inexperience balancing things out somewhat). All the named enemies will definitely be in need of a pathfinder rejig as will some other creatures but standard mooks can likely stay the same. For this encounter the only change I made was swapping hell hounds for dire wolves (from past experience very dangerous).
Combat began with a surprisingly effective volley of arrows from the bandits putting the hurt on a few party members. The retaliation from the party managed to kill one archer in the south (Iskander running in accompanied by spells from V) and putting two to slepe in the north east (Drake having headed that way but being beaten to the punch by Mabon's sleep spell).
At this point the dire wolves appeared alongside a perception check (listen) and the bladebearer. At this point the party began to feel that perhaps it wouldn't be the cakewalk initially anticipated. They didn't know how strong these creatures were but the bladebearer 'looked cool' and the large base sizes and descriptions of the wolves intimidated them a little.
Iskander made a beeline for the bladebearer intent on dueling him and yelling threats in orcish to which the hobgoblin replied he had no idea what the human was saying. The direwolves managed to hold up to their perceived threat by quickly bringing down Drake with trip attacks and inflicting some nasty wounds on Mabon. Attempting to stand (despite being told the risks) Drake was quickly knocked into the negatives and his player began speaking of what seemed to be a likely TPK.
His opinion was strengthened as a huge centipede appeared behind the party battlelines near the casters, at this point a few of them realised there was likely a caster about. One of the wolves kept harrying the bulk of the party whilst the other flanked Iskander with the bladebearer and the two started dealing out some decent damage on him.
Korthia and Omro began dealing with the centipede whilst Mabon dropped one of the wolves with a sleep spell (which we forgot had a HD limit). Any damage that Iskander could deal to the bladebearer was being quickly healed up but this did give the party some idea of where the caster likely was.
Amidst the fighting Korthia used her healing power to bring Drake back out of the negatives and heal Iskander up from 1hp, whilst Omro finished the centipede with a well placed sneak attack. A second wave of hobgolbins arrived but due to their tight formation were easily dispatched with a single fireball (the one survivor fleeing the battle). By this point all the archers were dead and the blade bearer was finally dealt with by Iskander. The caster was finally defeated by a sound burst from Mabon (causing cheers from the party) and the last wolf was finally dealt with by the combined efforts of the party. At this point we wrapped the session up with the enemy dead being coup de graced (with the exception of the wolf who Drake wanted to try and domesticate).
Session 4
Getting off to a much earlier start this session didn't feel as rushed as the last one. We had a full party (though Martin would only be introduced in Drellin's Ferry), everyone had equipment lists and we had a lot more time. As the session began Mabon suggetsed interrogating any surviving enemeis only to be informed they had been killed last session. Drake was still intent on domesticating the wolf but strongly opposed to this idea Korthia slit its throat. After looting the bodies and the farmhouse it quickly became clear they had more loot than they could carry. The magical shortswords were claimed by Iskander but eventually the party agreed they would be better off with the groups dual wielding rogue Omro as Iskanders weapons were better and Omro only had masterwork swords. What loot they couldn't carry was buried in the farmhouse and then the party headed on to town.
Here they met up with Martin, an old friend of Iskander and were temporarily prevented from entering town on account of Drake looking very suspicious. After finally being let in by the head of the guard they split into two groups, one to go sort out accomodation the other to speak with the townspeaker about current events. Picking up some information on the recent raids, likely originating in the forests to the north, they retired for the night in the halfling run inn. V refused to stay there disliking halflings and was eventually picked up by the townguard and put in a cell overnight on suspicion of being drunk. Mabon played some music at the inn to help cover some of the costs of them staying there as well as pick up some information about the forest including the sorts of creatures that inhabited it including the local ranger. He also arranged for Martin and Iskander to get some very strong beer to try and keep them quiet for the night.
The next day they visited the shops but deciding the town lacked the money to actually get them good value on their loot they instead stored it in the local warehouse before headed north into the forests. Rather than take the main road they took the smaller forest path. Whilst headed along this Drake fell over in the mud due to his heavy armour and a solitary owlbear ambushed them from the bushes. It managed to deal a bit of damage but ultimately posed a negligible threat. Coming to a fork in the path the party went left and eventually came to a cabin which they quickly decided belonged to Jorr the ranger. Getting on adequately with him and his dogs they ate soup of dubious origin and asked him about the goblins. This quickly lead to the group taking a liking to him as it turned out he hated goblins even more than Iskander and V hate each other. Getting some tips to check skull gorge (the party had already decided with a name like that they would be visiting it eventually) and Vraath keep (wrath keep? the party had a brief argument about how to pronounce it). After some chat about wether to head back and explore the other fork in the path or carry on down this one they decided on carrying on and emerged onto the main road then headed north.
This took them through a small patch of marshland. Spotting a cart half submerged in the marsh Omro decided to check it out. Nobody else was that interested though and continued on to the other side of the bridge leaving Omro to his investiagtions. Sneaking up to it Omro noticed what appeared to be some kind of lizard, perhaps a crocodile, with its head sticking out the water. Aware of how good his stealth was he snuck up on it and delivered a sneak attack which easily hit. At this point the head rose up out of the water on a very large neck accompanied by five similar heads and necks all connected to a very large reptilian body. A hydra. Oops. And that is where we ended the session with a cliffhanger to be resolves this monday.
Some good lines
-"Wrath keep?"
"No Vraath."
"Wraath?"
"No Vraath, with a V and two a's"
-"I think there might be goblins in the soup"
-"So, do we set the town on fire or not?"
-"Ummm, does it get to attack me with all five heads each turn?"
"No, it has six heads. They do all get to attack you though."
Now I know at least one of my players frequents these forums (though generally in structured games and friendly banter) so if people could refrain from any spoilers that would be much appreciated. Currently we are 4 sessions in with 2 sessions of character gen and 2 of gaming (well, 1 and a bit more like but I'll get to that). So far things are going pretty well, some of the players are a bit silly though I anticipated this and am okay with it.
Session 1
This session was recruitment and character concept generation. In the end I had 7 players (a little more than anticipated but didn't want to turn some people down) and the rulebooks for 3.5 and pathfinder. At this time I will point out that I have never played pathfinder but on account of its popularity at our gamesoc bought a copy of the main rulebook in case player prefrence was with that (which it was). Without too many rules changes though and a decent system mastery/knowledge of 3.5 my inexperience with pathfinder hasn't proved to be problematic. More interestingly though most of the players are of varying levels of experience with roleplays/the system.
Going round the table I had everyone introduce themselves and state what sort of character they would like to play. This produced the following list.
Player 1-Relatively experienced with pathfinder and roleplays in general, wanted to play a healer, leaning towards Druid.
Player 2-Played with in the past using the Serenity system. Wanted to play someone who hits things close up.
Player 3-Also wanted to play melee some RP experience. Initially interested in warforged but I had stated that various more 'exotic' races weren't going to be used on account of people being quite new and it would be weird in the setting. He then asked for a dragonborn which I allowed as it fits the module.
Player 4-A little roleplay experience as far as I can tell. Wanted to play a caster, leaning towards sorcerer.
Player 5-No roleplay experience but very interested. Opted to go for a rogue.
Player 6-A 4th ed player, wanted to go Eladrhin caster, possibly wizard. I convinced him to go for a more typical race (Eladrhin being very different in this edition) and he settled on a high elf.
Player 7-Experienced roleplayer, decided on bard.
Giving various setting information and such like to help with character concepts we eventually came to rolling up stats. Each player rolling a set of 4d6 and picking the three highest with the 6 best sets being the scores everyone would start with (distributed as they saw fit). After several sets of trult atrocious stats we came up with the following array.
13, 13, 13, 9, 15, 16 arranged in any order.
Session 2
Having chatted to some of the group about characters in the week between sessions we did some proper character gen this week. Some people had sheets printed off to fill in with certain details already completed to some degree. Races, classes stats, skill points, spell lists, special abilities and feats were all filled in and we agreed upon how the players would know each other/why they would be adventuring on the way to Drellin's ferry. By the end of the session everything was complete except equipment lists which I informed the players they could message me about if they weren't certain and I would sort it out for them based on roughly what they wanted their characters to have.
So the party was as follows.
Player 1-Korthia, female human cleric of Kord
Player 2-Iskander, male human fighter dual wielding weapons.
Player 3-Drake, male dragonborn (formerly human) paladin of Bahumat
Player 4-Martin, male human Sorcerer with an arcane heritage
Player 5-Olmrocgel, male human rogue
Player 6-Vaerlan, male elven evoker
Player 7-Mabonchudh, male human bard
Korthia and Drake had recieved messages from their orders informing them of ill omens to be investigated in Elsir Vale. Iskander and Martin were mercenaries from within the vale returning home after a job abroad and picking up a new job investigating from Lord Jaarmath. Mabon and Olm were pardoned from various trangressions so long as they helped look into things and Vaerlan had come to explore Rhest for scholarly reasons, settling on Vrath keep instead as apparently Rhest was dangerous.
A few other notes.
-Drake has the heart aspect (what kind of lame power is heart anyway?)
-Iskander is slightly racist towards Elves.
-Vaerlan is slightly racist towards Iskander. More importantly though he wears red robes, has purple hair, a pompous attitude and insists on be called V for short, its strange but I think I know this guy from womewhere:smallamused:
Session 3
After a late start it turned out we were a player down (Martin's player having had to go to a friends party) and that half the group didn't have equipment lists. After considering postponing till next week we decided to press on anyway in order to avoid the game falling apart before it had even started and so formed quick mock up equipment lists for those who didn't have them (whatever weapons/combat trinkets they were likely to take but none of the little things like camping gear and so on). We then began with a quick recap of what was going on and the party walking down the road towards Drellin's Ferry.
After letting the players roleplay things up a little (Korthia and Mabon quickly emerging as the straight men of the party with the 'conflict' between Iskander and V quickly emerging) I sprung the first encounter upon the players. This was all we had time for in the session but we managed to complete it and it reinforced my notions that things would indeed need to be strengthened up a little for the party size but not quite as much as the forum handbook suggests (the groups inexperience balancing things out somewhat). All the named enemies will definitely be in need of a pathfinder rejig as will some other creatures but standard mooks can likely stay the same. For this encounter the only change I made was swapping hell hounds for dire wolves (from past experience very dangerous).
Combat began with a surprisingly effective volley of arrows from the bandits putting the hurt on a few party members. The retaliation from the party managed to kill one archer in the south (Iskander running in accompanied by spells from V) and putting two to slepe in the north east (Drake having headed that way but being beaten to the punch by Mabon's sleep spell).
At this point the dire wolves appeared alongside a perception check (listen) and the bladebearer. At this point the party began to feel that perhaps it wouldn't be the cakewalk initially anticipated. They didn't know how strong these creatures were but the bladebearer 'looked cool' and the large base sizes and descriptions of the wolves intimidated them a little.
Iskander made a beeline for the bladebearer intent on dueling him and yelling threats in orcish to which the hobgoblin replied he had no idea what the human was saying. The direwolves managed to hold up to their perceived threat by quickly bringing down Drake with trip attacks and inflicting some nasty wounds on Mabon. Attempting to stand (despite being told the risks) Drake was quickly knocked into the negatives and his player began speaking of what seemed to be a likely TPK.
His opinion was strengthened as a huge centipede appeared behind the party battlelines near the casters, at this point a few of them realised there was likely a caster about. One of the wolves kept harrying the bulk of the party whilst the other flanked Iskander with the bladebearer and the two started dealing out some decent damage on him.
Korthia and Omro began dealing with the centipede whilst Mabon dropped one of the wolves with a sleep spell (which we forgot had a HD limit). Any damage that Iskander could deal to the bladebearer was being quickly healed up but this did give the party some idea of where the caster likely was.
Amidst the fighting Korthia used her healing power to bring Drake back out of the negatives and heal Iskander up from 1hp, whilst Omro finished the centipede with a well placed sneak attack. A second wave of hobgolbins arrived but due to their tight formation were easily dispatched with a single fireball (the one survivor fleeing the battle). By this point all the archers were dead and the blade bearer was finally dealt with by Iskander. The caster was finally defeated by a sound burst from Mabon (causing cheers from the party) and the last wolf was finally dealt with by the combined efforts of the party. At this point we wrapped the session up with the enemy dead being coup de graced (with the exception of the wolf who Drake wanted to try and domesticate).
Session 4
Getting off to a much earlier start this session didn't feel as rushed as the last one. We had a full party (though Martin would only be introduced in Drellin's Ferry), everyone had equipment lists and we had a lot more time. As the session began Mabon suggetsed interrogating any surviving enemeis only to be informed they had been killed last session. Drake was still intent on domesticating the wolf but strongly opposed to this idea Korthia slit its throat. After looting the bodies and the farmhouse it quickly became clear they had more loot than they could carry. The magical shortswords were claimed by Iskander but eventually the party agreed they would be better off with the groups dual wielding rogue Omro as Iskanders weapons were better and Omro only had masterwork swords. What loot they couldn't carry was buried in the farmhouse and then the party headed on to town.
Here they met up with Martin, an old friend of Iskander and were temporarily prevented from entering town on account of Drake looking very suspicious. After finally being let in by the head of the guard they split into two groups, one to go sort out accomodation the other to speak with the townspeaker about current events. Picking up some information on the recent raids, likely originating in the forests to the north, they retired for the night in the halfling run inn. V refused to stay there disliking halflings and was eventually picked up by the townguard and put in a cell overnight on suspicion of being drunk. Mabon played some music at the inn to help cover some of the costs of them staying there as well as pick up some information about the forest including the sorts of creatures that inhabited it including the local ranger. He also arranged for Martin and Iskander to get some very strong beer to try and keep them quiet for the night.
The next day they visited the shops but deciding the town lacked the money to actually get them good value on their loot they instead stored it in the local warehouse before headed north into the forests. Rather than take the main road they took the smaller forest path. Whilst headed along this Drake fell over in the mud due to his heavy armour and a solitary owlbear ambushed them from the bushes. It managed to deal a bit of damage but ultimately posed a negligible threat. Coming to a fork in the path the party went left and eventually came to a cabin which they quickly decided belonged to Jorr the ranger. Getting on adequately with him and his dogs they ate soup of dubious origin and asked him about the goblins. This quickly lead to the group taking a liking to him as it turned out he hated goblins even more than Iskander and V hate each other. Getting some tips to check skull gorge (the party had already decided with a name like that they would be visiting it eventually) and Vraath keep (wrath keep? the party had a brief argument about how to pronounce it). After some chat about wether to head back and explore the other fork in the path or carry on down this one they decided on carrying on and emerged onto the main road then headed north.
This took them through a small patch of marshland. Spotting a cart half submerged in the marsh Omro decided to check it out. Nobody else was that interested though and continued on to the other side of the bridge leaving Omro to his investiagtions. Sneaking up to it Omro noticed what appeared to be some kind of lizard, perhaps a crocodile, with its head sticking out the water. Aware of how good his stealth was he snuck up on it and delivered a sneak attack which easily hit. At this point the head rose up out of the water on a very large neck accompanied by five similar heads and necks all connected to a very large reptilian body. A hydra. Oops. And that is where we ended the session with a cliffhanger to be resolves this monday.
Some good lines
-"Wrath keep?"
"No Vraath."
"Wraath?"
"No Vraath, with a V and two a's"
-"I think there might be goblins in the soup"
-"So, do we set the town on fire or not?"
-"Ummm, does it get to attack me with all five heads each turn?"
"No, it has six heads. They do all get to attack you though."