Campaign Journal - The Avenguard Chronicles

[WesleyVos]

So, I'm starting my first live campaign on Thursday, and I figured I'd try to start a campaign journal. Our group is going to probably have to meet sporadically (all five of us work varying schedules, and one of us is moving to China in a month), so posts might be spotty. I'd appreciate feedback and advice, though, and hope the journal entertains!

The Setting

I have a ton of stuff written, but I'll give only the bare bones here. Centuries ago, there was a war between the Elders (deities, for all practical purposes, from outside the multiverse charged by the over-deity with creation of the multiverse), that resulted in the chief rebel goddess, Jezuba'al, bound, and her follower scattered. The world was nearly torn apart, and civilization collapsed. Since then, the Elders have been wary of direct involvement in the world, giving rise to the Ascended (beings of power who usurped or assumed some of the Elders' power). They are much more directly involved in affairs of their followers. Since that time, civilization has rebuilt and established itself, at least in this corner of the world, into nine main regions:

- The Avenguard Empire - The largest of the civilized lands. Best described as a semi-benevolent monarchy, it is a melting pot of cultures and peoples.
- Celerion - A nation of extremely xenophobic elves. It is said that the very secrets of creation are hidden in its vast forests.
- Zharahd - A dwarven kingdom on the southern border of Raashnaakh. Its people are hardy but very distrusting of outsiders.
- Justland - A lawful good monarchy (emphasis on lawful) founded by a sect of the Paladins of Meghwyn (the elder goddess of protection). Abutting Raashnaakh's southwestern border, they see themselves as the protectors of the world.
- Wielzewgoma - A collection of loosely-allied gnomish city-states just north of Justland.
- Padure - An elvish river kingdom. They are welcoming to all outsiders and thrive off the river trade that passes from Zharahd to Avenguard and beyond.
- The Northern Wastes - a harsh, cold land north of Avenguard. Once nominally part of the Empire, the people there now acknowledge no rulers but the cold and ice, and the occasional barbarian tribes that rampage through.
- Raashnaakh - The hiding place of most of Jezuba'al's followers, it is protected by tall mountains and inhospitable landscape. Little is known about it, as all attempts (most half-hearted) to breach its borders have failed, an no one has even attempted in centuries.
- The Great Eastern Desert - A vast desert covers much of the land east of Raashnaakh and Zharahd. Attempts to cross it have never been successful. There are tribes of nomads who live on its edges.
- The Western and Southern Isles - Still living in tribal governments, the people of the islands still manage to resist all attempts at occupation.

House Rules

A few basic house rules that might come up and are probably worth knowing:

1) I don't use XP. The bookkeeping is a pain in the rear for me, so I have the PCs level at appropriate times. That allows me to slow down the progression a bit and plan a bit further in advance, too, which is necessary given my schedule.
2) I have created a few custom feats and combined a few others to make sword-and-board and two-weapon-fighting reasonably viable. They're still not ideal, but they're not so far below two-handing that you're gimping yourself by taking them.
3) I am allowing the lesser Tome of Battle schools (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?48255-Lesser-Disciplines-8-more-Tome-of-Battle-disciplines). I'm primarily looking at True Arrow and Silver Pegasus for archery and mounted combat, respectively.
4) PCs get to either take a Pathfinder version of the standard races or get up to +1 LA for free.
5) As a note, we're playing 3.5e, not Pathfinder. We're just using Pathfinder races, because they're just better.

The Opening

All the PCs have been told at this point is that they have, by one means or another, been summoned or arrived in the town of Westcharton in central Avenguard for the purpose of tracking and killing some creature that is preying on livestock and, more recently, citizens. At least one farmer has already been killed, and the town is willing to pay to be rid of it.

The PCs

Players will all start at level 3, 34-point buy. I don't know a ton about them yet - I was hoping everyone would have their character mostly together by the time we start, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Here's what I know:

Fae: A human crusader from southwest Avenguard. She's focused almost entirely on tanking, and as we learned tonight she's very good at it. Her AC is sitting at 21, and with a combination of Iron Guard's Glare and the new Improved Shield Specialization feat, any opponent she threatens takes a -6 to attack any PC other than her. Pretty new player - she's played one 3.5e game before, but that was almost eight years ago.

Cobble: A dwarf cleric. Cobble is an assumed name, as he's originally from Zharahd, which he left for reasons unknown to the party at this time. He hasn't picked a deity yet (we're working on that, as I have a custom pantheon), but he's picked earth and death as his domains. He's the one really experienced player, having done a lot of Pathfinder, 4e, and 5e, with some 3.5e mixed in.

Skała: Stonehunter Gnome bard with Dragonfire Inspiration. She's primarily focused on boosting Inspire Courage/DFI and some debuffing (Grease was helpful, as you'll see below). She's a fairly new player as well; she said she's only played one other game.

Rye: Human druid from central Avenguard. She took Natural Bond to get a black bear companion (as of yet unnamed). Strength and Dex are really low, so her contributions so far have been her bear and a few entangle spells. She'll really come online at levels 5-6. She's completely new - never played before.

DM - I'm a fairly experienced 3.5e DM. I've run a bunch of online games before, but this will be my first with actual people sitting around the table with me. I've actually run this campaign before, though I had to tone it down a bit, as we're two players short of the ideal.

So, the opening of the campaign is going to be the kidnapping of a priest in the town. He'll be taken at night, the guards at the eastern gate murdered, and the PCs will be asked to put the hunt on hold to track and bring back the priest.

The question I have for the playground is timing. To make things realistic, the players can't take too long investigating - the kidnappers will start off with at least an hour's head start, but I don't want this chase to last much more than two days. The last time I ran this, I had to fudge numbers to make it work - I had the kidnappers unreasonably rest for an extra day in an abandoned farmhouse so the party could catch up. Any ideas on how to make sure the party keeps moving and gets where they need to be in something like a reasonable time?

I'll probably put up the next post Friday. Hopefully by then I'll have more info on the characters, too.

[Quarian Rex]

How to handle this depends on a lot of factors that you haven't mentioned. What level are we dealing with? 1st? 10th? It makes a huge difference. Assuming low level then a lot of questions still have to be answered.

How are the kidnappers getting away? Subtly leaving town with the target unconscious, stuffed in a box in the back of a cart, moseying to their destination to not attract attention? This would be easier to catch up to and would stick to actual roads/trails (and so only needing tracking checks at crossroads or large breaks in the treeline, etc.) but if the demi-human driving the cart had low-light/darkvision and said that they were traveling at night to avoid bandits (who look for encampments at night and ambush travelers during the day, because that's when they travel) that would at least be a believable lie for the Bluff check.

If the kidnappers just tied the priest to the back of their horse and galloped like hell, then they will probably stick to main roads to avoid movement penalties but would make a noticeable spectacle of themselves to anyone they passed. Also, if they were traveling on Light Horses (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/horse/horse/) then its light encumbrance weight of 228 lbs (Str. 16 on a Large quadruped) could be a factor if the priest just so happened to be a little on the chubby side (dropping base movement from 50 to 35).

If they just fled on foot into the forest then that would probably be the worst option for the PCs since it would require tracking at half speed so there would be virtually no chance of actually catching up.

Another thing that you might have to work out might be, why the PCs? If they are 1st level then they are little better than the gate guards who got murdered (possibly worse) and sending them instead of some of the army's riders may be seen as... less than prudent. Sending adventurers out to investigate troubles in the boonies, where they can bumble around till they stumble upon trouble is fine (they can take their time and only peasants are at stake), but entrusting the welfare of important people™ to characters that are technically less capable at any given task than a commoner with a masterwork item, and when a failed skill check can mean the kidnappers get away, is borderline self-destructive.

Like I said, your situation is missing a lot of key info to be able to offer any more concrete advice but this is what came to mind so far.

[WesleyVos]

How to handle this depends on a lot of factors that you haven't mentioned. What level are we dealing with? 1st? 10th? It makes a huge difference. Assuming low level then a lot of questions still have to be answered.

How are the kidnappers getting away? Subtly leaving town with the target unconscious, stuffed in a box in the back of a cart, moseying to their destination to not attract attention? This would be easier to catch up to and would stick to actual roads/trails (and so only needing tracking checks at crossroads or large breaks in the treeline, etc.) but if the demi-human driving the cart had low-light/darkvision and said that they were traveling at night to avoid bandits (who look for encampments at night and ambush travelers during the day, because that's when they travel) that would at least be a believable lie for the Bluff check.

If the kidnappers just tied the priest to the back of their horse and galloped like hell, then they will probably stick to main roads to avoid movement penalties but would make a noticeable spectacle of themselves to anyone they passed. Also, if they were traveling on Light Horses (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/horse/horse/) then its light encumbrance weight of 228 lbs (Str. 16 on a Large quadruped) could be a factor if the priest just so happened to be a little on the chubby side (dropping base movement from 50 to 35).

If they just fled on foot into the forest then that would probably be the worst option for the PCs since it would require tracking at half speed so there would be virtually no chance of actually catching up.

Another thing that you might have to work out might be, why the PCs? If they are 1st level then they are little better than the gate guards who got murdered (possibly worse) and sending them instead of some of the army's riders may be seen as... less than prudent. Sending adventurers out to investigate troubles in the boonies, where they can bumble around till they stumble upon trouble is fine (they can take their time and only peasants are at stake), but entrusting the welfare of important people™ to characters that are technically less capable at any given task than a commoner with a masterwork item, and when a failed skill check can mean the kidnappers get away, is borderline self-destructive.

Like I said, your situation is missing a lot of key info to be able to offer any more concrete advice but this is what came to mind so far.


You're right, more information is needed. This is what happens when I post when sleep deprived. Which probably means I shouldn't be posting now, either, but what can ya do?

Players are level 3. Most everyone in town except them is either lower-level, is needed in the town for crisis management, and/or has only NPC levels.

Kidnappers sneak in (wererats coming in through the window). They take the priest, then flee to the east gate, where compatriots (mercenaries) have murdered the guards. They take off down the road (no mounts - having them take turns toting the priest, who is rather spindly, which does slow them down to a base 20 speed), following it for most of the day. They only turn off near dusk, at a prearranged meeting place (an abandoned farmhouse). Most of the kidnappers stay while a small contingent takes the priest on to the next safe location, a cave about another day's march away.

[Quarian Rex]

Players are level 3. Most everyone in town except them is either lower-level, is needed in the town for crisis management, and/or has only NPC levels.

Umm... what would you call this? I know that one of the most basic tropes of the game is for adventurers to be called on to help with a crisis, but that crisis is usually remote enough and ill-defined enough that it would be unfeasible to send out the military. This is a direct assault on the city itself. Why are they unable or unwilling to take any action? If this isn't a town crisis to be managed then what is? Why are they sending four randos (who thus far seem to be completely lacking in tracking skill)? This is the sort of fridge-logic type stuff that can lead to a coup that is completely justifiable to a party of good PCs, or just abandon any form of investment in the game world and go along with 'whatever' the DM happens to lay out. Neither are good options.

TL;DR - Have the town take some actual action independent of the PCs. It doesn't have to be fruitful but it does have to show a basic level of competence and capability on the part of the town.




Kidnappers sneak in (wererats coming in through the window). They take the priest, then flee to the east gate, where compatriots (mercenaries) have murdered the guards. They take off down the road (no mounts - having them take turns toting the priest, who is rather spindly, which does slow them down to a base 20 speed), following it for most of the day. They only turn off near dusk, at a prearranged meeting place (an abandoned farmhouse). Most of the kidnappers stay while a small contingent takes the priest on to the next safe location, a cave about another day's march away.
That seems to be quite a bit for a 3rd level party. DR 10 is absolutely no joke at that level, multiply that by multiple wererats and add a small mercenary force and that seems like a lot for four lowbies. Also, their getaway seems... dumb. Like an obvious DM handout because he knows the players are too incompetent to deal with anything more than the targets slow-walking down the main road.

How about a solution that kills two birds with one stone here? First, have the wererats not be idiots. Wererats are sneaky, why didn't they just slip into the city like ninjas? Why are they using mercenaries? As a distraction, that's why. The mercenaries are taking off down the road (on horses, because they are not fools) while the wererats sneak their quarry through the forest.

The town sends riders (because a direct assault on their town and its citizenry cannot be allowed), at least twice as many as the reported number of mercenaries (because they have actually been in a fight and don't try to engage in a battle without advantage), charging down the road because a group of mounted mercenaries is not subtle.

Have a local half-orc Ranger (no higher level than the party but specced for tracking) yell that the town council/king/whatever is an idiot and that he should send people into the forest. Have the Ranger be a d!ck about it. The council tells the Ranger to leave military matters to them [the Ranger has a history of being contrary and his Favored Enemy (Humans) endears him to no one]. Have the Ranger approach the PCs, explaining that he thinks this was done buy wererats (DR 10 at this level should be something that the PCs can prepare for), and that while humans are devious, wererats are worse (and still humans). They wouldn't just race down a road and he thinks that he found some tracks into the forest. He can't go after them alone (no one in town likes/trusts him) so he needs the PCs help. Maybe he even has an extra silver dagger.

You now have a situation that shows the town as being mildly competent/capable while still justifying the PCs help without requiring one of the PCs to be designed as a sleuth. This shows thought and planning on the part of the kidnappers, while still splitting the possible encounters into manageable chunks. This also shines a light on possible political depths in the town itself, something that adds richness to the setting even if it isn't elaborated on any further.

Thoughts?

[WesleyVos]

Umm... what would you call this? I know that one of the most basic tropes of the game is for adventurers to be called on to help with a crisis, but that crisis is usually remote enough and ill-defined enough that it would be unfeasible to send out the military. This is a direct assault on the city itself. Why are they unable or unwilling to take any action? If this isn't a town crisis to be managed then what is? Why are they sending four randos (who thus far seem to be completely lacking in tracking skill)? This is the sort of fridge-logic type stuff that can lead to a coup that is completely justifiable to a party of good PCs, or just abandon any form of investment in the game world and go along with 'whatever' the DM happens to lay out. Neither are good options.

TL;DR - Have the town take some actual action independent of the PCs. It doesn't have to be fruitful but it does have to show a basic level of competence and capability on the part of the town.



That seems to be quite a bit for a 3rd level party. DR 10 is absolutely no joke at that level, multiply that by multiple wererats and add a small mercenary force and that seems like a lot for four lowbies. Also, their getaway seems... dumb. Like an obvious DM handout because he knows the players are too incompetent to deal with anything more than the targets slow-walking down the main road.

How about a solution that kills two birds with one stone here? First, have the wererats not be idiots. Wererats are sneaky, why didn't they just slip into the city like ninjas? Why are they using mercenaries? As a distraction, that's why. The mercenaries are taking off down the road (on horses, because they are not fools) while the wererats sneak their quarry through the forest.

The town sends riders (because a direct assault on their town and its citizenry cannot be allowed), at least twice as many as the reported number of mercenaries (because they have actually been in a fight and don't try to engage in a battle without advantage), charging down the road because a group of mounted mercenaries is not subtle.

Have a local half-orc Ranger (no higher level than the party but specced for tracking) yell that the town council/king/whatever is an idiot and that he should send people into the forest. Have the Ranger be a d!ck about it. The council tells the Ranger to leave military matters to them [the Ranger has a history of being contrary and his Favored Enemy (Humans) endears him to no one]. Have the Ranger approach the PCs, explaining that he thinks this was done buy wererats (DR 10 at this level should be something that the PCs can prepare for), and that while humans are devious, wererats are worse (and still humans). They wouldn't just race down a road and he thinks that he found some tracks into the forest. He can't go after them alone (no one in town likes/trusts him) so he needs the PCs help. Maybe he even has an extra silver dagger.

You now have a situation that shows the town as being mildly competent/capable while still justifying the PCs help without requiring one of the PCs to be designed as a sleuth. This shows thought and planning on the part of the kidnappers, while still splitting the possible encounters into manageable chunks. This also shines a light on possible political depths in the town itself, something that adds richness to the setting even if it isn't elaborated on any further.

Thoughts?


There are a lot of good ideas here. One note - the wererats in question are DR 5, and there are only a few of them. But I like the idea of two parties, or even three. And that makes the house meetup make more sense.

On mobile at the moment, and I can’t thumb type, so longer reply coming in a bit.

EDIT: So, at a computer now, so I can take time to write something longer.

It's a smaller town (closer to a hamlet than a city, population around 400 or so), so there isn't much of a military in town to speak of. The PCs are actually the most capable in town, except perhaps the elderly priest of Ashis, the god of the dead, and he's not going anywhere. There is a small guard force that just lost a quarter of its force (the two guards killed at the gate) and the small militia is farmers with pitchforks. They can send a message to the Imperial Guard barracks some days away, but that won't help in the short term.

However, I do like the ideas of the enemies splitting up, one as a distracting force and one to go through the woods. I'm going to use that for sure. Might throw in an old cantankerous tracker that nobody likes as an NPC depending on the party capabilities. Don't want to step on the druid's toes if she builds for tracking. Given the teaser I gave them (hunting a beast) I'd be surprised if she didn't.

This is why feedback is great - the campaign's opening night has already gotten just that much better.

Game night tonight, so first game post coming tomorrow!

EDIT: At a computer now, so spoiler text is edited for a fuller reply.

[Quarian Rex]

It's a smaller town (closer to a hamlet than a city, population around 400 or so), so there isn't much of a military in town to speak of. The PCs are actually the most capable in town, except perhaps the elderly priest of Ashis, the god of the dead, and he's not going anywhere. There is a small guard force that just lost a quarter of its force (the two guards killed at the gate) and the small militia is farmers with pitchforks. They can send a message to the Imperial Guard barracks some days away, but that won't help in the short term.

Strongly (re)consider this. If a hamlet is so small that it is defenseless then it should be under the protection of the local lord. And by 'local' I mean someone whos keep can probably be seen from the hamlet, nevermind being days away. The average medieval fief was only @1500 acres (which comes out to a square under 8km to a side), something that can be covered in a timely fashion. If people have a lord then that lord has a duty to protect his people, the system doesn't work otherwise. This is even more crucial in D&D-land where roving bands of goblins and dire bears are things that exist. If you have a town of 400 with 8 guards (so, what, maybe three are active at any given time?) and a single sedentary cleric, where the closest reinforcement is days away, then you effectively have a "Plunder Me!" sign attached to that community. That is a plunder that could happen, without consequence, with as little as a dozen orks.

You may be thinking that I'm being too harsh but worldbuilding is key. Showing that communities/kingdoms are capable of basic survival without PC intervention is critically important, and being able to send out riders in a timely fashion (even if they're not terrible effective) goes a long way to showing that the current feudal hierarchy shouldn't be toppled immediately.




However, I do like the ideas of the enemies splitting up, one as a distracting force and one to go through the woods. I'm going to use that for sure. Might throw in an old cantankerous tracker that nobody likes as an NPC depending on the party capabilities. Don't want to step on the druid's toes if she builds for tracking. Given the teaser I gave them (hunting a beast) I'd be surprised if she didn't.

Hey, multiple trackers are a good thing. The Druid making the roll when the Ranger flubbs his can be the difference between catching the quarry before they reach reinforcements or not. The main point of the Ranger character was to provide immediate direction, motivation, and need.




This is why feedback is great - the campaign's opening night has already gotten just that much better.

Game night tonight, so first game post coming tomorrow!

Glad to help out with the mental spit-balling. Good luck with the game and I look forward to hearing how it turns out.

[WesleyVos]

First session is in the books. I’ll put up a full post tomorrow. Our bard is taking notes, so when she joins she might add on.

Short version is that we didn’t get as far as I wanted, because character building took a while, but it was a good first session, especially for the newbies. Good education in skill check and basic combat. More to come tomorrow.

Edited the opening post with some character info. I will put the rest up a little bit later today.

[WesleyVos]

In Which the Adventure Begins

The Characters

So, everyone got to the game with characters partially made, and we spent a while getting all the crunch together and making it match the fluff as nearly as possible. After about two and a half hours, we had the following:

Fae: A human crusader from southwest Avenguard. She's focused almost entirely on tanking, and as we learned tonight she's very good at it. Her AC is sitting at 21, and with a combination of Iron Guard's Glare and the new Improved Shield Specialization feat, any opponent she threatens takes a -6 to attack any PC other than her.

Cobble: A dwarf cleric. Cobble is an assumed name, as he's originally from Zharahd, which he left for reasons unknown to the party at this time. He hasn't picked a deity yet (we're working on that, as I have a custom pantheon), but he's picked earth and death as his domains.

Skała: Stonehunter Gnome bard with Dragonfire Inspiration. She's primarily focused on boosting Inspire Courage/DFI and some debuffing (Grease was helpful, as you'll see below).

Rye: Human druid from central Avenguard. She took Natural Bond to get a black bear companion (as of yet unnamed). Strength and Dex are really low, so her contributions so far have been her bear and a few entangle spells. She'll really come online at levels 5-6.

The Adventure Begins

I had planned some initial light RP for the party to get to know each other, but since it was already pushing 8:30, and all of us work, we agreed to skip it for now (we'll probably retcon it next session) to get right into the adventure.

The party awoke to alarm bells clanging outside the inn in which they'd stayed the night. When they made their way to the common room, they were met by the innkeeper and a middle-aged priest, who introduced himself as Omis. He was a priest of Ashis, the god of death, and he informed them that the man who had sent for them - Leratur, priest of Ahasuerus (god of light and elves and generally considered a leader of the pantheon) had been taken in the night.

The cleric immediately asked if it was possible he'd simply gone for a walk. Omis then noted the acolyte that was found dead outside the priest's room. At this point, a priestess of Meghwyn (goddess of protection) burst in, exclaiming that the two guards at the east gate were found dead and that there was blood in Leratur's room. Omis and the priestess, Dehena, offered 500 gold to the PCs to track the presumed kidnappers and bring Leratur back. The cleric offered to do it for free, but he was rather quickly shouted down by the rest of the party.

They made their way to the Temple and got some information out of Omis and Dehena on the way. Leratur was rather absent-minded and very academic, so he often stayed up late in his room working on some theological treatise or study. An investigation of the acolyte's body found what looked like claw wounds on the body and bite marks (clearly animal) on the neck. They rolled well on those checks - I actually hadn't planned on giving out that much information so early - but it ended up helping a good bit. They also found scuff marks, including what looked like claw marks, on the floor, with some heading towards the dining hall. There was one clear footprint, definitely not human, in the dust. The cleric at this point suggested that it might have been something conjured from another plane, as he recognized something about the marks. (This was another really good roll on his part - the party was getting really lucky with their investigation rolls).

When they investigated the room, they found more scuff marks near the window (about 2 feet square, with bars making the openings about 9 inches). A close inspection (and a natural 20 from the bard) found those scuff marks to be tiny claw marks. The cleric noticed a book and two scrolls that merited attention. One was an encyclopedia on unusual creatures, while the scrolls were related to conjured beasts and shapechangers. The bard got some more information from the scene - there was some blood on the mattress that she deduced was from a single blow to the head. The cleric, guessing lycanthropes at this point, touched his silver holy symbol to the blood to see if it would react (which it didn't). Rather clever use of a mundane item, I thought.

They looked to the dining hall next, but they didn't find anything of note other than that the footprints seemed to go from large to tiny. They looked around the outside of the Temple and found again that the tracks changed size and shape. The cleric at this point is sure that lycanthropes were involved, probably wererats at least.

At this point, they've taken about an hour to investigate, not counting the time after waking up, so I'm calling it about two hours after sunrise. They head to the gate where the guards were murdered, and the druid recognizes one of the corpses as her nephew. Sad moment for her. Also there are some of the remaining militia members and a crotchety half-orc who claims that the militia are dead wrong. The party asks what he's going on about, and he explains that the militia believe the kidnappers mounted and headed off down the road. They're ready to rush after them. The half-orc, the only really experienced tracker in town (semi-statted him as a level 1 ranger) says he knows that the kidnappers wouldn't be that stupid, and he's sure they split off into the woods somewhere.

The players investigate the bodies, but rolls started to go bad here, and they couldn't get a lot. They do see a number of heavy footprints, booted feat and some horse tracks. There doesn't seem to be signs of any group splitting off yet, so while they generally believe the half-orc (who feels that the militia weren't listening to him because of racial prejudices), they know they need to start on the road. They take the half-orc tracker with them, and within an hour they do find tracks splitting off from the main group. Several rat-like, several booted feet, one slightly heavier than the others (which they immediately assume is a body being carried. They head into the woods and track for several hours, then the bard thinks to roll Knowledge:Geography. She hit high, and remembers that there is an old abandoned farmhouse about seven hours march away, so they decide that the kidnappers are probably heading there and want to try to get ahead of them. They mark the trail where they are, then head back to the road and make for the farmhouse as fast as they can.

After a few hours, the druid hits a high spot check and notices movement in the woods on either side of the road. She says something, and the cleric immediately stops and looks around. That prompts the ambushers to break out of the woods. Four orcs, a human fighter, and a cleric apparently in charge.

The crusader rolled high on initiative and went first. She charged at one of the orcs to the south, using Charging Minotaur, but failed her bull rush - the orc rolled high. Druid then cast entangle on the enemies to the north, trapping all of them. This effectively took them out of the fight. One of the orcs to the north did manage the strength check to break free, but by the time he got to the edge the dwarf charged him and put him down for good. The druid's bear took out another one, and because the druid had forgotten to feed him this morning, well...the bear was out of the fight at that point, too. Food comes first.

The bard shot a crossbow bolt that took down another of the orcs - one shotted him. Despite only having a d6 damage, she rolled really high all night, and these were standard statblock orcs. The half-orc tracker took the other entangled orc down with an arrow to the eye. The cleric finally broke free of the entangle and moved to the edge, then cast Shatter on the PC Cleric's axe, who passed the will save by 1. Our cleric retaliates and takes the enemy cleric down to exactly 0 hp, at which point the enemy surrenders and puts out his hand for the dwarf to take it. With a loud, "Well Met!" the dwarf does, and gets hit with the Lesser Shivering Touch the enemy had prepared. Rolled low on damage - only 1 dex - but our dwarf only started with 8, so it hurt. The dwarf was less than appreciative, and beat the cleric to death, then pulverized the corpse.

They stabilized one of the orcs for questioning later, strapped him to one of the captured shields and tied him to the bear, looted the other corpses, and continued down the road.

Where they got hit with the second ambush. Same general makeup, but this time they noticed a wererat in the distance, watching.

The crusader went first again. This time she stayed near the party and started with her crossbow, to no effect. The bard rolled well again, though, and took down another orc in one shot. Then the tracker went into the negatives from an orc charge, and the enemy cleric opened with a scroll. Two orcs and a fighter are now surrounding the crusader and hacking at her, while one has charged the bear and is trying to keep the enemy cleric safe.

The crusader activates Iron Guard's Glare (she's standing next to the downed tracker, so he's benefiting from it) and starts laying about herself with her warhammer, doing some decent damage. The enemy cleric finished his spell (Summon Monster II) and a fiendish wolf appears next to the dwarf and does some damage. (I planned for a trip the next turn - never got to it.) The dwarf responded with Cause Fear on the wolf, who failed its will save and ran like Hades.

One of the orcs finally got in a lucky blow and hit the crusader, but didn't do enough damage to really harm her. She'd been taking blows for three rounds now, and despite some good rolls only one hit got through. The dwarf and the enemy cleric get into a poking war with Lesser Shivering Touches, and after two rounds the dwarf was locked up tight at 0 dex. The bear took out one of the crusader's attackers, and the bard started drumming (Inspire Courage, no DFI - the party was having some bad luck on attack rolls). The bear took down another orc, but not before he'd coup de graced the tracker.

The bard set off a grease spell under the enemy cleric's feet, and he failed his reflex save, so he couldn't coup de grace the dwarf this round. He rolled to the side to get to his feet. The crusader stepped forward and hammered him, dropping him into the negatives.

The bard, annoyed, finished off the rest of the enemies (all were unconscious in the negatives by now).

Given that it was the first session, and that most of our players were new, I allowed them to find a 1-charge wand of restoration to get the dwarf back to normal dex, with the warning that I was only doing that because it was the first session and I didn't want the only experienced player to be literal deadweight until they could get back to town.

Oh, I should note that the wererat ran off after it was apparent the PCs were going to win.

At this point, it was just after midnight, so we agreed to end there. We're meeting again on Tuesday, a bit earlier and without a lot of character creation to do, so we should get through a lot more game.

Analysis

I thought things went fairly well. The new players got a good introduction to the skill system, to movement, and to combat. I took things pretty easy this time, because we have new players and I didn't want them thrown into a meat grinder right away. The half-orc tracker was actually a useful plot device. I didn't end up using the militia charging off - I think I set things up well enough that the PCs are really the best for that job, and they took the tracker with them. I may have the militia come riding up next session - haven't decided yet.

I did have to make up a good bit on the fly, which is a lot harder live than even in a chat-based game. Having good notes helped, but it also slowed things down a bit too much for my liking.

The really fun stuff starts next time; this session was mainly for a bit of setup and teaching the new players how to play.

So, thoughts, comments, feedback? Suggestions are welcome, but as my players are probably going to be reading this, please make judicious use of spoiler tags.

Thanks for reading!

[WesleyVos]

Quick update: Due to work conflicts, we had to cancel this week's session. The next session will be next Thursday.