RHoD Campaign Journal - Complete with Bears and a complete disregard for rules. [Archive]

Red Rubber Band

2013-09-30, 10:00 PM

Session #1 - Setup and stuff up: How to make your RHoD more exciting

Before the session.
Last minute changes to the people who were playing in the campaign caused some delays in starting. While Zero's and Kevroar's players were fine and done early, after waiting for weeks on two others I decided to drop them and pick up two new players. However, the first session was planned for a day or two later. Not normally a problem (if people have free time), but one player has never looked sideways at D&D and the other last played it years ago for a short period of time.
After inundating them with the rules I left them to their devices. A lot of hum-ing and hah-ing on their part ended up with me going round to Kuroko's player's place early to help him and the wizard's player finish (read: start) their characters. A quick hashing out of characters and a tonne of reading later and we were ready to go! Except for items... *rolls eyes* All of us threw around horribly unoptimised ideas to quickly get the game under way and soon everyone was equipped and ready. Themes override power currently :smalltongue:

Starting off. The first meeting.
I briefly explain their reasoning for being in Elsir Vale:
Zero was delivering a message. His character is being played as rather listless and a bit of a recluse. He (having a masculine personality) is looking for purpose or something to take his mind off having lived, forgotten, in a basement for a few hundred years. He goes where events lead him.
Kevroar was ordered to the Vale. High Arch Druid McDruidington the Druid sent him there after a portentous omen involving upset balances.
Kuroko and Duncan McMagus are being chased by local guardsmen after causing havoc in a nearby town. They arrive in town in style. The rogue is riding the wizard who is altered into a "mong" donkey. (These guys will be fun)

The druid found his way to the only tavern in town (town being the "fake" Drellin's Ferry, see first post) and sat down for dinner and a drink. He was not there long before a machine burst through the door asking after Soranna. After some confusing backwards and forwards between the two future party members the door again bursts open and in comes a gnome riding a very put-it-out-of-its-misery looking donkey. Havoc ensues as the donkey, obviously having negatives to Dex, Spot, Balance, and just general coordination, trips and runs into everything possible. Bobo, Kevroar's bear companion, decides to poke his head in through a window to add to the hilarity. The barkeep calmly tells the gnome to stable his mount. Cue the donkey disappearing and a wizard taking its place. Sighing, the barkeep then tells then to set the place aright. He then turns to the robot and informs him that Soranna would be at home and that if he wanted to talk to her, she could be found at the docks from sunrise on. To the bemusement of everyone, Zero promptly left for the docks, content to sit there until morning.
The three remaining not-quite-yet-party members get to getting to know one another. But don't really do a good job at it. Though the gnome does take a shine to the druid's bear companion. Barring some attempted pranks between the rogue and wizard, the night ends relatively quickly.

Next morning everyone arises early. The two trouble makers decide they will wander with Kevroar down to the docks, but not before the wizard disguises himself as a provocatively dressed human female (yes, one of those players). A good spot check by the rogue as they wander down the main street saves his gnomish behind. Spying a couple of guardsmen wearing the insignia of the town they just came from, the rogue does what he does best. He hides. Under the bear. They pass unnoticed by the guards, who are last seen walking into the tavern they just left. A quiet, hurried discussion later the three are now "officially" a travelling party. The wizard is interested in the Vale's spellcasting, his familiar is surprisingly ok with the druid, Kuroko has grown fond of Bobo, and the druid is intrigued enough by the two clowns that he is fine with them accompanying him.
Meanwhile the warforged has, after a couple of failed attempts, located Soranna. She reads the message and then asks Zero to investigate over the river for her. Apparently there have been increases in goblinoid attacks and it's upsetting teamsters and merchants. She promises a reward that is dependant on the information he brings her. Very no nonsense type.
Agreeing, he takes the barge pass she offers. It is a one way pass for a large, heavy load.
Serendipity steps in (or maybe DM railroading) and just before the barge is ready to be boarded the slightly unfinished "official" party rocks up. Recognising the strange warforged from the previous night, they go and harass him. In the brief conversation that follows they realise they are going to, shock horror, the same place and decide they should accompany one another.
The barge boarding call is sounded and the barge pass is just enough for all of them to cross! There then follows a period of RP and general bonding. Towards the end sexy, provocative human female slowly morphs back into an imaskari. An imaskari that has decided the warforged is his new primary target for pranks. Generally agreed to be a bad idea for him, but the stubbornness is strong in this one.
Anyway, they hop off and stroll through hours and hours of farm land that turns into featureless (read: generic) plains, and eventually they hit the edge of the Witchwood.

Cue: Marauder Attack.
Duke Featherbottom was flying overhead on the look out. Didn't really do much as the PCs and hobgoblins noticed one another at the same time. Luckily the warforged had taken to walking out in front and takes the brunt of the arrows. Manifesting his powers, he gets bigger. At this time I should point out I, stupidly, forgot the number one rule of psionics and I believe I let him use up more PP than he was able to. My bad. Anyway, he got massive and does a sh*t tonne of damage with each swing of his sword.
A fireball from the wizard blasts two of the guys in the trees. Rolling high causes me to describe the literal explosion that rocked the area. All that is left is burnt vegetation and crispy goblinoid. A cloud of ash and smoke fills the area allowing the rogue to stealth it up and pass through the vegetation like a ghost. He's spotted a goblin further into the treeline, near a cottage. Another small squad of hobgioblins were just down the road and walk up to see what the commotion is about; the hell hounds, Uth-lar and Zarr walk out of the cottage. Zarr turns invisible while Uth-lar taunts the party. Kevroar does... something... and his bear companion bears down on another enemy, crushing it against a tree and severely wounding it.
Round two. Fight! Back to the warrior. Now absolutely huge, he charges at a hapless archer; hopping over the bear companion in his way he lands, rolls, and coming out of the roll swings his massive greatsword in an upward arc. The momentum lifts the hobgoblin into the air and crushes him against a low(ish) lying branch. He is very much dead.
The wizard runs for his life into the trees. Having been barely missed by a few arrows he realises how close to death he actually is. Negative Con and a low AC is not a good idea for a squish. A failed magic missile later and he squats down next to a tree to ponder his next move. Rogue time! Popping out from the vegetation he catches a lone hobgoblin unaware. The surprise causes the hobgoblin to slip a bit, and Kuroko hits him square in the... chestplate. May need to work on his aim a bit. Half of the reinforcements charge at the large robotic man. One dies for it's efforts because reach + AoO = death. The other half form up around the dual wielding, boss looking guy who is now standing in the middle of the lane, and yelling at the underlings to stop messing around. He throws around a few insults and flexes his muscles, draws his weapons, all that jazz. The bear companion attempts to nom the goblin it has pinned to a tree but takes a sword hilt to the snout for it's trouble. Spying an easy meal, the hell hounds surround the gnome assassin in (dire need of) training. Being small and dexterous has its advantages though and only one attack from the three surrounding opponents scores a hit on the little fella, leaving his pride a bit... burnt. Oh no! Our rogue is in peril! Send in the bear squad! (See houserule in first post) By the time the bearington brothers arrive, though, the rogue is on the other side of the battlefield. Hiding. Waiting. It doesn't stop them from basically trampling over the hobgoblin in an attempt to stomp the hell hounds.
Swinging the spotlight back to the rampaging warrior we see him bloody up, but surprisingly not kill, another poor soul. Suddenly Fireball. Boom. Duncan McMagus manages to hit the formed up reinforcement team and Uth-lar. Cleans up the mooks, but the big guy is left standing. He looks a bit beat up, but the hurts slowly disappears before their eyes (invisible healer is teh haxxorz, though they surprisingly don't suspect it yet) and is clearly annoyed. Uth-lar makes a beeline for the machine and... rages against it ;) He hurts and the mooks step up their game, bringing Mr Roboto to the single digits! Fortunately for our plucky heroes this here band of enemies is not coordinated, so the hell hounds have an all in brawl with the beargade. It eventually ends badly for them. Kuroko runs in and flanks the remaining hobgoblin that is attacking and actually scores a hit on him! Minimal damage, but a hit is a hit is a hit. Glasses are raised and drinks are had. Kevroar wades into the fray with the hell hounds and with the help of his summoned buddies finishes them off. Meanwhile the bear companion is enjoying a nice helping of red meat.
Fearing for his "life", Zero blows his load on Uth-lar. Empowering his sword or some crap (night got a little hazy around now) he rolls high and when the dust settles... Uth-lar is left standing. The table goes silent. Keep in mind that up until now the warrior has had to roll low for equipment/surrounding area not to get destroyed. Expletives happen. Duncan McMagus effectively wastes his turn (that or I cannot remember what he did :smalltongue:). Bobo decides to end this farce. He drops his meal and crash tackles the still standing Uth-lar. The leader falls unconscious, but isn't dead. One hobgoblin remains and after dodging a kidney-aimed dagger by the innefectual rogue, he sprints off, dropping his weapons. He is shortly after crushed by the warforged, who accidently steps on him whilst in pursuit. After a short, intense chase the bears lose the still invisible cleric in the woods, thereby wrapping up the combat.

The aftermath.
They loot everything and throw it into the one haversack they have between themselves, while the rogue explores the cottage and finds the dead bodies. A quick search and sweep clears the house of all valuables. They fail at diplomancing the now roused Uth-lar but then try a different tact and interrogate him, successfully, and he spills most of the beans. Though after hurting his pride he does it in a superior my-side-will-win-therefore-I-win way. They get rather annoyed with both his lack of information and attitude so once they have all they need from him they kill him, bundle all the bodies into the cottage and burn it. Slight pyromaniac tendencies in this group.

Continuing on their merry way, the group finally walks over the crest of the hill to... this is where I start swearing in my head. They've reached Drellin's Ferry. The real one. This inevitably comes up in conversation with the guard station's captain and I have the captain snort derisively and inform them that they have reached the real Drellin's Ferry and the other place is actually called something else. The captain is a fairly agreeable person, rough and gruff but a good sort. He recommends his favoured tavern, which they swiftly ignore for cheaper lodgings, and promises to send men out to investigate their claims of hobgoblinicide. He, too, mentions the "bloody mongrels" and their raids. Seems to be a trend. Good thing there's an adventuring party in town.

The session basically ends there. They've got a vague idea of bunking down for the night and selling stuff in the morning but are currently in stasis exiting the guard post.

Extras.
Had a bit of a disagreement with the druid about Greenbound Summoning. I gave him a soft lower level limit of 9 before he can take it. He takes it before that and I get to buff up everything they face. It was something I'd talked about it to him before, but seemingly had not made my point clear enough. With two relatively new players to the game it can really throw the party balance out of whack, imo. It also doesn't help that my understanding of the rules is coloured as I have only played in very heavily house ruled campaigns and never knew any better.

Thoughts, comments? Keep in mind, still fairly new at playing D&D and even newer at DMing.