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View Full Version : Campaign Diary-Red Hand of Doom Spoilers



MeklorIlavator
2008-09-26, 10:58 PM
Well, I'm currently running the Red Hand of Doom Module in real life at college, and I thought I'd start a Campaign diary, partially to get my thoughts in order, partially so that I have a convenient place to ask for help if I need it. This is about the Published Red Hand Of Doom Module, so there will be spoilers, so read at your own risk.

First, a note on the party:
Vivideus, Human Cleric of Heironeous. He is one of the two veteran players, but he hasn't played in a while. The Cleric is somewhat martial, wielding a longsword and using buffs to increase combat capabilities. He’s serves as the Primary/Only Melee Character in the group, so he kinda has to codzilla, though I doubt he’ll take it to its heights. The player will be called Bob.

Iago, Human Warlock. This is the second veteran player, and he is probably the best optimization-wize of the bunch(better than me as well, some of you may remember him as Solo). He is playing a hellfire-glaivelock build (he hasn't taken a level of that class yet, but has made the intention clear and I have oked it). He’s operating under something of a houserule: parents sold his soul, but he escaped before the fiend could fully collect it. He reads as Evil regarding spells, though the user will know something is off. The player will be called John.

Chester, Halfling Ranger. This is the first new player, she only has played once before (it was a rogue). She has disable device and trapfinding, and I also gave her some hints on what to pick for favored enemies (this campaign is largely composed of one creature type with occational occurrences of other types, so I thought it was only fair). She decided to specialize in ranged combat, and uses her animal companion as a mount. The player will be called Sue

Antonius, Human Wizard. This is the second new player, and he has no experience what-so-ever. So obviously, he chose to be a Wizard, probably the hardest class for a newbie, though he seems to be enjoying it. He specialized as a Conjuration user. Has a tendency to go nova in combat. His player will be called Mark.

First Session:

So, once I got everybody together, the first major thing we did was create characters. This took longer than my normal group for a couple of reasons. One, my normal group prefers to make characters separately, so we usually have only a bit left to do at the actual session (mainly look over what we have and change things if necessary). But the main thing that dragged this out was that 2 of the 4 players had very little knowledge of the rules, and one of them had no knowledge, so we had to teach them the rules while helping them as best we could. John was a great help at this point as he had the skeleton of a character already made, and so he only needed to make a few alterations and he was good to go. Thus, he was able to help the others (and did a much better job than me, I might add).

So, a couple hours later we were ready to play, so the game began. Now, with this module (I’ve begun campaigns using Red Hand of Doom several times) I like to do something of a in medias res opening. So, the Characters know that they’ve been hired to go to Vaarth Keep and clear it our/locate the deed and bring it back to a descendent of the original owners (deed isn’t necessary, but claiming the keep out of hand could be dangerous considering the other lords in the area, so the descendent is hoping to get the deed to prove his claim and to possibly get support from another lord). They are heading towards Drellin’s Ferry, the closest town to the keep.

In game, on their last day of traveling they encounter an ambush, with the only the ranger getting a chance to react (minimal success on her spot check). Now, the fight went by pretty quickly, but I notice a couple things early on. First, the Wizard is casting spells pretty quickly and is pretty dry once combat ends, so resource management might be a problem. Secondly, the Cleric got knocked down very quickly (due to a max damage bow crit and several turns in melee combat due to his low rolls preventing hits), so this could also be a big weak point. Thirdly, I know I need to get better with fights. Something like 6 or 7 rounds took 2 hours. That’s too long, but I think I can improve. Fourthly, using regular graph paper instead of a battle map of some kind is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, area of effect stuff is easier to mark, but on the other its small and can be hard to read.

After the combat the party rests up and recovers what loot it can.

Second Session:

Well, a week after the first session the group gets back together for the next part. I’ve decided to not use a battlemap and see how it goes.

The party starts off after resting and heads towards the town without anything of note (besides me reminding the PC’s of Information that their characters know but they forget), and before long they are stopped by one of the guard posts set up around the town. This isn’t a really big challenge, as the guards are more set against the Hobgoblin raiders, but it does give the PC’s some more info and some leads on where to get more information. They quickly are allowed through, first stopping at the toll house to inquire after the guard captain, only to find that she is out at the moment. They move on to do some things that they feel necessary, mainly checking up on what they can buy (sorry, no wands of cure X) and sell. The latter is much more interesting, as they bargain with Sertieren the Wise, the local wizard, to try and get the magical parts of their loot identified. They strike a deal with Sertieren agreeing to identify the items free of charge as long as he can copy a few spells from the party’s wizard. Then the party head back into town for a meal and also gets a meeting with the Speaker of the town (mayor) and the Captain of the guard, in which they learn of the Hobgoblin problem plaguing the town and some more information regarding their destination. I think the roleplaying here was pretty good, and the party managed to both depart from anything the designers had planned and arrive at a similar point at the same time, so I guess what they say about parties and railroads is true.

So the party stays the night, figures out what the items are exactly, and then heads out, first stopping by Jor’s Cabin (a woodsman suggested as a possible source of help by the captain of the guard, may or may not be Scottish). They manage to enlist his help by accidently playing off of his hatred for goblins, and thus they have a guide. So onwards they travel towards Vaarth keep, but first, more combat!

This time, the encounter runs differently. First off, this is not the encounter in the book, as I switched the hydra for two CR 4 Giant Crocs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/crocodileGiant.htm). Now, this is still a EL 6 by the book, though I would personally give it EL 7 as the crocs do get some advantages, but well within a rested parties grasp. The setting has it at a causeway/bridge over part of a river. The Crocs start in the water, and only start to attack once the party gets onto the bridge. First off, the Warlock uses his ability to fly to scout out the other side of the river, and finds nothing, so the party starts across (minus the wizard, who stands next to the bridge, this is important).So, combat starts out with both crocs getting surprise attacks, one which fails to connect, one which latches onto the cleric for about half his health, but fails the touch attack for the grapple. At this point it starts to look better for the PC’s, as they all go before the Crocs and thus all of them get away to the opposite side of the river. The wizard fires a ray of enfeeblement at one, but it misses due (though it was a good strategy), and the warlock shatters one of the pillars holding up the bridge, causing a section to collapse and a Croc to fall back into the water. This move was also pretty good, as it divided up the crocs(I would have made both follow the other group, where they might have been able to overwhelm the cleric). Now, though, here’s the rub. The croc that fell was on the same side of the causeway that the wizard is, and he goes to that side. He has enough movement to get to the other side, with enough left over to make a attack, which succeeds, removing 15 of the wizards 20 hp. The others are busy fighting the croc on their chore, but the cleric manages to cast command, having the Croc drop the Wizard, who then moves away. Now, Jor is on this side of the river as well, so I do a simple test. I have the wizard choose high or low, and then roll a d4, 1-2 being low, 3-4 being high. If he chooses the same thing as the dice roll, it attacks him, if not, then it attacks Jor (both were pretty much the same distance away). Mark chooses low, and I roll a 2. The attack hits and would have taken him down to -19 if hp went that far, so I ruled the thing almost chomped him in half. Nothing much happens after this, as the others all ping away at the things, with the cleric almost being taken down again (high rolls as much as anything else).

So the session ends with the PC’s morning their lost friend/seeking some form of resurrection/reincarnate.


So, question time:
Do you think the combat was fair(overall, of course, I know that you don't know the specifics)?
How would you handle this? I could easily bring in another character for Mark, but what would you do? Remember, this is 6th level.

RTGoodman
2008-09-27, 12:53 AM
I think it was fair - RHoD is a tough adventure with a lot of hard combats (I'll try not to spoil anything, just in case), and I actually think it's just that luck wasn't on your players' side. The normal encounter on the Causeway (the Hydra) would probably have been just as tough if not tougher (I know it was TERRIBLE on one of my parties that ran it), so crocs were probably fine.

Also, I think even if the Wizard had survived he might have had a tough time - there are some parts of the adventure where running out of spells is a possibility, and a very deadly one.

As far as a new character for Mark:
I figure you can go three routes - let them find a scroll or something of Resurrection or Reincarnate, let them wait without him until they find the Staff of Life in Vraath Keep, or let Mark roll up a new character that the other'll discover as a hostage held by hobgoblins on the way to the Keep. I'd probably go with the last one.

Also, I think telling the Ranger what would be good Favored Enemy choices, even if it's a little meta-gamey or whatever, is probably good - I was in the same situation (new-ish player playing a Ranger in RHoD) and did the same thing, and it managed to cover for the lack of optimization among the others (a Soulknife/Soulbow, a Rogue, and a non-CoDZilla melee Cleric).

MeklorIlavator
2008-09-27, 12:58 AM
Yeah, the third option sounds pretty good. In fact, me and John might try and get him to be a barbarian instead to make it easier for him. He has had a bit of trouble with the rules(preparing spells and the like), so it might be easier.

KillianHawkeye
2008-09-29, 10:01 AM
I myself have been running this adventure for the past 9 months or so (the group is getting pretty close to the end, except for a couple of things they skipped). Anyway, I had to introduce a new player about 3 or 4 sessions into the game, so what I did was make up a Hobgoblin slaving caravan that happened to be passing through the forest on their way back to the goblins' territory, and I had the new player's character be one of the slaves that the PCs rescued. (It's a bit corny and cliched, I know, but it worked.)

Matthew
2008-09-29, 11:55 AM
Seems fair to me. Ask Mark whether he would prefer to have his character resurrected or wants to roll up a new one.