Campaign Journal - The Red Hand of Doom!

[Saph]

I've been running a Red Hand of Doom game for today and last week, and decided it would be fun to write up a brief campaign journal. I know quite a few of you guys have played/run the module, so I'd be interested to hear anyone else's experiences/advice. Plus, it's always fun to read about other people's misfortunes. :) (Though my lot have actually done pretty well so far.)

For those who've played or DMed it and know it well, please tell me if I'm coming up to any bits that you think I could use some advance warning - or just relate any funny stories, that's good too.

So, here's the beginning party. Everyone had their choice of 28 point buy or 4d6 rolled. I treated below-average HP rolls as low-average, causing everyone to have a little more HP than normal for their level.

• 5th-level NG sun elf wizard (RotW elven generalist racial substitution levels) - Maxed-out Int score, crummy at everything else. Uses spells from all schools.
• 2nd-level CN barbarian/3rd-level fighter, halfling. Uses a halfling-sized greataxe, likes hitting things.
• 5th-level LG human cleric of Tyr - Newbie of the group, mostly healbots.
• 5th-level N human druid of Obad-Hai - Summoner, wolf animal companion, pretty experienced at playing druids.

There's also a floating 5th player who varies from session to session, but these are the regulars. The wizard and barbarian were drawn into the campaign via the 'Vault of Vraath Keep' adventure hook, while the cleric and druid got involved via 'Omens of Doom'.

Session 1

Mostly taken up with character creation. The PCs got through the Marauder Attack event with no real trouble, and learned the ins and outs of Drellin's Ferry.

- Saph

[Saph]

Session 2

PCs met Jorr and befriended him with no problems. Random encounter, shambling mound, defeated fairly easily though the halfling was nearly squished (Improved Grab + Constrict is nasty). The PCs encountered the hydra on the causeway and dealt with it by running like rabbits, taking a few bites and losing a horse in the process.

The group rested and hit Vraath Keep the next morning. In the ensuing melee the PCs ended up fighting every single monster in the place in one drawn-out battle, though the time delay and bottleneck terrain meant that they could take on only a couple at a time. In the end the PCs won the day with surprising ease - the hobgoblins were fireballed to death while they slept, the worg riders were worn down in a series of fights in the courtyard., and the manticore fled once it was knocked down to 5 HP. However, Wyrmlord Koth was able to escape once all his minions were gone (though the PCs did manage to secure the map).

Thoughts

It seems pretty hard for the PCs to stop Koth from escaping. With mage armour and shield his AC was 23, preventing them from hitting him easily even if they didn't have their hands full with all the other monsters, which they did. With his potion of fly he was never at real risk of being killed.

Difficulty seems about right at the moment - the battles are difficult and the players feel like they're at risk of death, but no-one's come really close to dying.

So far the PCs have been winning without casualties, probably due to having 5 members rather than 4 and playing reasonably powerful characters. We'll see if the battle at Skull Gorge Bridge next week gives them any more trouble.

- Saph

[YPU]

am running this campaign in a home brew 4 E version. There are some things that do not carry over particularly well. In last week session they managed to create a magic circle around the east part of Drelins ferry. One that would block a lot of the horde from crossing the river. This would of course be difficult, but with a few good rolls they had the whole village helping clearing the circle of obstacles, and with a few days of time preparing a circle that big was not a problem. So I think ok, I’ll give her a penalty on her arcane check and it wont keep the horde for long. That would all be well if she hadn’t rolled a natural 20…

Anyhow, before I derail your topic, make sure you have some suitable dramatic text for the scene after skullgorge bridge. I had to use movie references before my players were getting the idea of the scene, and that does kill the awesome of the whole scene. Make sure your players are going to say “Oh ****” even before you mention the giants and dragons.

[Saph]

Anyhow, before I derail your topic, make sure you have some suitable dramatic text for the scene after skullgorge bridge. I had to use movie references before my players were getting the idea of the scene, and that does kill the awesome of the whole scene. Make sure your players are going to say “Oh ****” even before you mention the giants and dragons.

I'm not actually sure how they're going to see the scene after Skull Gorge Bridge - if they succeed and destroy the bridge, there's no way for them to get across! I suppose if they do really really well and actually kill Ozyrrandion . . .

On that subject, I think I might have a full 6 players next week. Given that the campaign's designed for 4, should I bump up Ozyrrandion from a Young green to a Juvenile? (CR 5 to CR 8 increase.) I can't decide if it'd make it too difficult or not.

- Saph

[YPU]

My party had the same attitude as the village, “a hundred or so hobgoblins? We can take them.” The map did little to change that. A lotr reference did.
Anyhow, both options would work, it simply depends on what feeling you want to give. But considering that the bridge is very important to the horde, I say the fight should be hard, no matter the party size.

[MeklorIlavator]

Interesting, I recently started one of these as well, though it has fallen by the wayside because my group decided to have lives beyond my game. The thread is here, but the only real notable thing so far is that I had my first PC death ever. Combat wise I'm a little nervous, as they've had trouble so far dealing with pretty normal stuff.

[EvilElitest]

will you be doing this for other games as well?
from
EE

[Saph]

Interesting, I recently started one of these as well, though it has fallen by the wayside because my group decided to have lives beyond my game. The thread is here, but the only real notable thing so far is that I had my first PC death ever. Combat wise I'm a little nervous, as they've had trouble so far dealing with pretty normal stuff.

Yeah, the causeway battle is pretty tough due to the terrain advantage it gives to aquatic monsters.

My party (sensibly) just ran across the causeway as fast as they could and left the hydra behind. It did mean they missed out on the treasure, though.

EE, I doubt it, but I'll keep this one up for a few weeks and see what feedback I get.

- Saph

[KillianHawkeye]

Great adventure! My players are getting pretty close to the end now, and are loving it!

Koth got away from my players, too. I still have him in reserve, thinking of giving him some ogre-mage mercenaries for his next appearance. Ulwai also escaped thanks to combined invisibility, haste, and rolling a natural 20 on her Move Silently skill.

I'm not actually sure how they're going to see the scene after Skull Gorge Bridge - if they succeed and destroy the bridge, there's no way for them to get across! I suppose if they do really really well and actually kill Ozyrrandion . . .

Well, my group didn't want to destroy the bridge (I made up some plot hook about reviving the trade route to some kingdom in the west), so they went to see how bad the horde really was. Needless to say, they did destroy the bridge on the way back.

Anyway, if they don't destroy the bridge, then they don't get that nice little preview. However, that probably means that they're confident enough that they're going to try to defend Drellin's Ferry (my players weren't, they told everybody to get the heck out). So, just run some of the advance scout encounters (like the chimera), and then when the actual horde arrives they can see how badly they're outnumbered. This will also make the rest of the adventure a bit more frantic than mine was, since your players won't have that extra time to warn people and the horde's advance units will be on their tails the whole way.

Anyway, I'll be happy to share my experiences with you. I'm really curious about other people's play of this module, since this is the first time I've been the DM.

[Waspinator]

I'd like to read more. Red Hand of Doom is a pretty fun adventure. It also has perhaps the most fun to say name of any D&D module I've heard of.

[Saph]

The name reminds me of that Munchkin card, "Of Doom." You could tack it on to any item and it added to the title. So the Spiked Codpiece became the "Spiked Codpiece . . . OF DOOM!"

New issue, now. A newly-joining player has asked if he can play a ToB character. Main problem is that all the NPCs and enemies in Red Hand of Doom don't use ToB - the soldiers all have Fighter levels instead, and I don't have the time to integrate ToB into the campagin world. Hmm, what to do . . .

- Saph

[KillianHawkeye]

I don't think you have to change all the NPC Fighters into Warblades just because you allow a someone to use ToB. I mean, pretty much the only Fighters in the adventure are nameless hobgoblin and human soldiers (except for Soranna and Lars, I think, and they're probably not going to be fighting the PCs anyway).

I'm not an expert on ToB, but I don't think it would be such a big problem. If necessary, maybe you can say that Warblade > Fighter like Fighter > NPC Warrior, resulting in Warblade > Fighter > NPC Warrior.

[Waspinator]

Eh, it should be fine. I would at most rebuild a big, named NPC or two to use Warblade, but nameless mooks can be fighters just fine. It's not like the existence of the two classes is mutually exclusive.

[Saph]

Well, there's also the issue that several of the PCs are playing relatively weak builds - there's a Barb/Fighter, a single-class Fighter, and a single-class Rogue. None of those players are familiar with ToB, so I'm worried about a Warblade or whatever showing them up. Up until now the party's been very balanced, with everyone contributing and the difficulty level being exactly right, and I want to try and keep that.

- Saph

[RTGoodman]

I love RHoD, though none of my groups seem to get past the end of Chapter 1 without the game falling apart.

I'm actually REALLY surprised at part of your run-through - I've NEVER, EVER heard of a party that wanted to run from the Hydra. It's always problematic, but it's ALWAYS happened. I had one group that had a really tough time with it and nearly lost 2 of 4 PCs to it, and one group of 4 PCs (two players with two PCs each) ran at it headlong and took it out in two or three rounds (glaive + enlarge + Improved Sunder = dead hydra). Running is actually a VERY smart tactic considering that it's not a huge loss of XP or treasure (IIRC).

Vraath Keep was a biggie for my one group that got there, too, and it seemed to work to work out almost the same as your version. All of the monsters (hobbos, gobbos, wargs, Karkilan the Minotaur, and the manticore) all came out basically in a row, but my PCs (an unoptimized group of Soulbow, non-Zilla melee Cleric, TWF Ranger, and sneaky Rogue) handled it. In fact, they even managed to KILL Koth after a slightly altered encounter.

(Basically, I had thrown in a secret escape door in the top of the tower that connected to his "lair," and the PCs started lock-picking and busting it down, which he heard. He readied a blindness/deafness, which deafened the Rogue, but the same Rogue managed to him with a near-max damage SA with a hand-crossbow before he could fly away.)


Regarding ToB, I don't think it'd be that big a problem, especially if the player decides on a Crusader. He wouldn't be taking away from either the healers or damage dealers, and would be a good 5th (or 6th) wheel for the party, I think.

Also, for a VERY interesting read, check out Caligula's Red Hand of Doom - Total Recap! campaign diary from the WotC boards. I followed that for months, and loved his DM style and all the characters. It gave me a lot of inspiration for running RHoD.

[Coidzor]

Ah... Koth. The only person, place, or thing whose name our party's chronicler managed to spell right apparently.

We actually got him with a long-range bowshot that had a cumulative -5 to it. Somehow. I mean, my fighter2/rogue3 managed to shank him a couple of times before he flew out of the top of the tower and he took a full salvo of wizard and druid magic, but it was kinda funny to have to scour the forest floor for the wand he had with him and then climb all the way up a tree to get him out of the branches. Didn't know the minotaur was worth getting a name though.

The green dragon was laughably easy due to a miscommunication about the rules relating to Call Lightning and ended up frying him right after he retreated from us to heal himself, really pissing the DM off. This was right before the hobgoblins on the other side of the bridge blacked out the skies with their arrows. It ended up with the ranger, my rogue-fighter, and the barbarian cursing our luck as we had put up a rig and made a deal with our necromancer to cast gentle repose so we could haul the green dragon carcass back to the main city and sell it for meat and leather. We then had a rather drawn out discussion about what we could do to go get the corpse while exchanging arrows with the remaining hobgoblins until the wizard got bored and nuked their leader, breaking their morale. Then they ran away and the party shot down my idea to follow them back to the main body of the army as we were all scared ****less by the idea of an actually organized, unified army of monstrous humanoids. I think we got fat and complacent with the fact that the orcs we faced killed each other as often as not.

We managed to work out a possibility of how to get at it, but it wasn't feasible for our party due to the fact that we had no flight capability and didn't have time to spider-climb down, make a pulley and block and tackle, and hitch up the entire party and a forest giant we managed to bribe with the corpse of the Lord of the Vraaths (or to us, the Verifs). We ended up just giving the guy back his lost property.

We're currently in some swamps, completely lost and fighting random undead right now. Mainly because the gnomish paladin can't actually make it through the swamps without being mounted. That, and the map's not really good enough to tell us where in the middle of the swamp to go, so we kinda just burned down the keep, followed the road until we reached the swamp and plunged in blindly. That was fun. Though I still don't know why you'd try to cut off access to a road that isn't even in use and doing so only attracts attention to your (supposedly) subversive activities.

We're 8 PCs strong though (theoretically), due to the fact that the DM just couldn't stand his first two players alone together after their first (they both doubled up). One of the players has recently gotten sick and hasn't been able to make it, effectively rendering us without arcane casters as she was only there for Koth and hasn't really made it since. That, and one of the PCs is level 3-4 and we're ECL 6-7, so it's really more of a cohort that we converted so he wouldn't have to put as much work into changing things. I think we're roughly moving into a sort of rotating roster as we go along though....

As you can probably guess we're all relatively new to this.

[RTGoodman]

Didn't know the minotaur was worth getting a name though.

Well, the only reason I remember his name (or even that he HAS a name) is that he had carved his name in big block letter on his belongings or a table or something like that (I don't remember if that was in the module or if I made that up because it seemed cool at the time) and, to show the PCs what they had found, I accidentally sort of carved his name into the back of my DM notebook with a pencil.

As you can probably guess we're all relatively new to this.

Hey, are you having fun? If so, then just keep doing what you're doing. So what if you can't remember or pronounce the names or forget stuff - either way RHoD is an epic campaign that HAS to be fun to play. (I know I wish I had a chance to play it rather than DM it.)

[Saph]

I love RHoD, though none of my groups seem to get past the end of Chapter 1 without the game falling apart.

I'm actually REALLY surprised at part of your run-through - I've NEVER, EVER heard of a party that wanted to run from the Hydra.

My group's been taught to fear hydras through several nasty battles. :) In this case it was probably a good idea, since the terrain makes it very hard for meleers to reach the critter without getting AoO'ed to death (and nobody had Improved Sunder).

Also, for a VERY interesting read, check out Caligula's Red Hand of Doom - Total Recap! campaign diary from the WotC boards. I followed that for months, and loved his DM style and all the characters. It gave me a lot of inspiration for running RHoD.

Yeah, I read the first few pages of that. It was entertaining but not all that much help for balance purposes, since the power level on Caligula's game seems to have been really wonky - the starting PCs were level 6 and loaded down with major magic items (like +4 weapons!)

- Saph

[Dizlag]

I ran this one back a year or so ago. An extremely fun, rewarding mini-campaign that truly gives you the best bang for the buck. =)

I wanted to make a comment about the bridge encounter with Ozzyrandon. If I remember correctly, my group fought the hobbos and dragon barely escaping with their lives. They knew an invasion was coming, so they sent their scout up ahead beyond the bridge to see how big of a force they were dealing with. Let's just say ... I was able to put "the fear" into them early letting them know just how big the army was. Hehehe

It didn't really help much either that being the first session for a couple of players, I ended up killing my wife's character that night. They were freaked because they knew I wouldn't be holding back ... not even for her. Granted after they left my life sucked for a couple days, but hey ... you don't charge a reaping mauler (my own addition) with your ninja! =)

Anyway, the next session they rigged the bridge for a wave of worg riders and giants. I just went with the flow of it as to what they'd like to do and they had a blast! Looking back now, it was probably my most successful campaign I've ever run.

EDIT: Just adding a comment on a new player wanting to us ToB. Fortunately for me, I put this campaign area near a coastal area so if an "exotic" character such as that would've been played we could just say he/she came from across the seas, etc. Not knowing how fleshed out your campaign world is, I'm not sure if that would work for you or not. I know the ToB classes are more uber than a typical fighter melee class, but shouldn't be unbalancing in my opinion.

Enjoy! And good luck!

Dizlag

[Coidzor]

Hey, are you having fun? If so, then just keep doing what you're doing. So what if you can't remember or pronounce the names or forget stuff - either way RHoD is an epic campaign that HAS to be fun to play. (I know I wish I had a chance to play it rather than DM it.)

Well, I was mainly covering myself with the obvious in case I had said something really stupid. That, and I just realized I forgot to tell how we managed to take Vraath keep relatively easily by having the hobgoblins massively fail all of their listen rolls. The only two that actually heard us were Koth and the minotaur. We were readying to bust in on the minotaur anyway and Koth couldn't resist the chance to see who the hell had just killed half of his garrison. I think one of the biggest reasons for this lucky stroke was that the patrols were all out doing whatever it is they were doing.

Somehow managed to avoid them, other than the 2 that came to back up the ambush that hit us when we first rolled into town. It's not so much fun killing as it is making me apprehensive about where the DM will kick it up a notch. I know he's already been deviating enough from it to know that I probably won't gain anything other than a very nasty pit-trap to the face if I act like I know what I should be running into. Since he's going to be running some famous adventure after our characters are retired from the Red Hand of Doom (and we never, ever speak of the Dread Necromancer class again. And find some holy water to douse the character sheet with), and is looking for practice implementing punishment for bringing in out of character knowledge of what the module should be like.

[Saph]

The lead-up to this week's session was dominated by in-group social politics, which were not fun to deal with. Spoilered because it doesn't really relate to the campaign.

Spoiler

Show

There'd been tensions building between some of the players for a while now, and after last week's session they came to a head. To cut a long story short, two of the players (the wizard and the barbarian) weren't willing to DM themselves, but weren't willing to accept the authority of any other DM either. After last week, I finally sent an email around telling players not to argue with my rulings or rules in-session, and to bring any issues they had to me after the game from now on. The two players in question both responded by quitting.

Having to discipline players is my absolute least favourite part of DMing (I hate playing schoolteacher), but I was glad I did it. After the initial reactions (angry emails, misinformation to the other players, attempts to start up a rival game) things settled down, and today's session was the most fun I've had as a DM in months. You don't realise how much of a drag some people are until you suddenly don't have to deal with them anymore.

Session 3

After the dust had settled, the players for today's game were:

• 5th-level human cleric of Tyr (newbie, present at sessions 1&2)
• 5th-level human druid of Obad-Hai (present at sessions 1&2)
• 5th-level elven rogue (present at session 2)
• 5th-level human duskblade (experienced player, only now joining but here to stay)
• 5th-level elven wizard (newbie who joined late and only half-filled in his character sheet.)

After meetings, greetings, treasure division, and introductions, the players saddled up and reached Skull Gorge Bridge with a minimum of fuss. On seeing the dragon, they started to have second thoughts. After several hours of debate, they came up with a plan and launched their attack.

The PCs engaged the bridge defenders with arrows and managed to kill a hell hound at range before the green dragon, Ozyrrandion, reached their position. A Flyby Attack devasted the tightly-bunched group, but they healed and started advancing towards the bridge under the cloak of a camouflaging spell from the Druid.

Unfortunately, the elven wizard didn't get the memo about being stealthy and hit Ozyrrandion with a couple of spells as the dragon returned from drinking his potion of bull's strength. He didn't seriously hurt Ozyrrandion but did succeed in annoying him and one acid blast later, the wizard was at -8 and Ozyrrandion was searching his body for valuables. (Memo to low-level arcanists: your Constitution should be higher than 10, especially if you're in the habit of picking fights with dragons.) The cleric charged the dragon, while the rest of the party broke cover and assaulted the bridge.

To everyone's amazement, the newbie cleric managed to not only survive the first few rounds against Ozyrrandion, but hung in there for round after round. Each turn Ozyrrandion would unload on the cleric with his breath or a full attack, and each turn the cleric would use either a healing spell or a charge from the staff of life from the Vraath Keep treasure vault to recover. The increasingly aggravated dragon ended up ripping the wizard's head off out of spite to stop the cleric from healing him, but he just couldn't take the cleric down. The cleric ended up tanking Ozyrrandion for no less than fifteen rounds, taking nine full attacks and half-a-dozen blasts of dragon breath. On three separate occasions he was reduced to only 1 or 2 hit points, but he always just survived.

This gave the attack team at the bridge time to wear down the hobgoblin defenders. While the duskblade cleared the towers and took the hobgoblin veterans down one at a time, the rogue used his Search skill to discover Skull Gorge Bridge's weak point, and upon getting the signal the druid fired two Crumble spells at the bridge. Ozyrrandion returned, having finally driven off the cleric, but exactly one round too late, and the Crumble spells caused the bridge to collapse. The party fled back to the treeline, pursued by the enraged green dragon, and finally managed to lose him in the forest. With the bridge destroyed and the majority of the defenders dead, the session was over.

Having defeated the equivalent of a CR 10 encounter, the PCs earned a buttload of XP and proceeded to level up to level 6, gaining feats, HP, and spells. And there was much rejoicing.

Thoughts

Awesome session. The battle was epic, perfectly balanced, and everyone in the party (except for the deceased wizard) got to feel like a hero at some point. The rogue and druid teamed up to take out the bridge in only a few rounds (which neither could have done on their own), the duskblade killed the hobgoblin sergeant with a single action using a Quick-Cast True-Striked Arcane Channeled Power Attacking Shocking Grasp, and the cleric went toe to toe with a dragon for an amazing length of time and survived to tell the tale.

Watching the battle today reminded me that clerics are a great class for a newbie - their toughness and ability to recover from just about anything makes them very forgiving to play. Today also reminded me that wizards are just about the worst class for a newbie, the wizard achieving nothing except to draw the dragon's fire.

I'd considered tweaking Ozyrrandion to toughen him up, and I'm glad I didn't. While many of the enemies in RHoD could be more effectively built, the end result is a game difficulty setting that's pretty damn good, producing encounters that are neither walkovers or unbeatable to an average party with a mix of newbies and veterans.

The PCs have now mostly finished Chapter 1, with only some mop-up battles and the big diplomacy event left to go. So far RHoD's proving to be an excellent module. The only modifications I'm thinking of are to do with Koth and Ozyrrandion surviving - I'll have to arrange for them to run into the PCs again in chapter 2 or 3, as the players have managed to do an superb job of driving them absolutely nuts. :)

- Saph

[RTGoodman]

That sounds like a great session, and I'm glad to hear that the pre-game drama didn't de-rail it. That's how most of my games end up falling apart.

Also, quick question - where's the crumble spell from? I've never heard of it, and the one group that managed to take out the bridge when I DMed only did so with the aid of his energy-substituted sonic fireball or three (apparently you can't actually choose sonic anymore, but whatever).

If you haven't decided finally on where you want to put Koth and Ozy back in, I always like the idea of wyrmlords and dragons that survived leading forays against the PCs during the Battle of Brindol. I think the module suggests just lumping all the dragons together at the entrance to the Fane of Tiamat in Chapter 5, but to me that just sounds like a TPK in the making (especially if they still have to fight the Blue AND maybe the Red at the same time).

(Spoilers in white text, since I'm never sure if players are around that don't need to see them.)

[Saph]

Also, quick question - where's the crumble spell from? I've never heard of it, and the one group that managed to take out the bridge when I DMed only did so with the aid of his energy-substituted sonic fireball or three (apparently you can't actually choose sonic anymore, but whatever).

It's a little-known spell from the Spell Compendium, specifically designed for taking out buildings (d8 damage per level). The druid had just enough spell slots to do the 50 HP damage he needed.

If you haven't decided finally on where you want to put Koth and Ozy back in, I always like the idea of wyrmlords and dragons that survived leading forays against the PCs during the (spoilers)

Yeah, I think that makes sense - I could substitute out Skather, since fights against stealth-enemies tend to drag a bit. Either that, or I'll have them run into one of them ahead of the horde or in the Ghostlord's lair. Grudge matches are always way more fun than random monsters. :)

- Saph

[Saph]

Session 4

A break last week while we played a one-off. More players have joined and now the group's big enough again to have no problems with shortage of players anymore. Man, building up a group is hard work. :)

This is the new party roster, which ought to stay fairly constant from now on:

• 6th-level human cleric of Tyr (original player)
• 6th-level human druid (other original player)
• 6th-level tiefling fighter (was there for session 1, rejoined now as she just got back from Greece)
• 6th-level human duskblade (was there for session 3)
• Human 2nd-level Marshal/4th-level Paladin (new player. I've never seen a Marshal played before, what do other people think of the class?)
• 6th-level human sorcerer (another new player, took the Celestial Sorcerer feats, fairly effective despite focusing on lightning attacks.)

. . . and one more player who got himself killed just like the last session he played, making him 2 for 2 so far. 7 players is a little more than I'm comfortable with, but I'm assuming not everyone will be there every week from now on.

Events

The players spent most of the session finishing up chapter 1 and getting to know the new characters. Highlights included the PCs managing to convince Old Warklegnaw to help them out against the Red Hand, the druid doing scouting flights in eagle form in which he finally eyeballed the horde, and three fights: a random encounter with a bunch of stirges which they wiped out effortlessly, a rematch with the hydra, and the Goblin Raid encounter.

I bumped up the numbers of the raiding party, adding in an extra worg rider, two hellhounds, and an extra sorcerer in the second wave, but the PCs still didn't have much trouble. The newly-made barbarian got killed, but that's what you get when you run 80' ahead of the rest of the party and charge the enemy lines solo.

As for the hydra battle, due to disorganisation and conflicting opinions, the PCs ended up getting their butts handed to them and were forced to flee AGAIN (the third time they've fled from the same CR 5 monster). It's getting hilarious, I'm almost tempted to have the thing show up just so they can run into it a fourth time. :)

Despite the setbacks, though, by the end of the session the PCs had convinced the Council of Drellin's Ferry to evacuate and wrapped up Chapter 1. Their final victory point total:

1 VP - Aid from the forest giants
2 VP - Taking out the bridge
3 VP - Evacuating the town

Total: 6.

The two objectives they've yet to complete are killing Koth (2 VP) and killing Ozyrrandion (1 VP) but I'll make sure they get another shot at that.

Those of you who've played it; how's that score compare to yours?

Thoughts

I'm really enjoying RHoD, it's a very cool module to run. Everyone's having a good time, and the atmosphere at the table is great. Having 7 players gives the PCs a major action advantage, though, so I've decided to increase enemy numbers by 50% across the board from now on.

Something interesting I've noticed is that blaster-casters are NOT ineffective in this campaign. Due to the large amount of enemies with low-to-medium HP (like the 13 HP goblin regulars) being able to toss a Fireball or a Scintillating Sphere into the middle of a bunch of them is a pretty effective method of crowd control.

The Knowledge Devotion feat which the duskblade has picked up seems a little on the powerful side; any opinions?

Next week we'll be starting Chapter 2: The Ruins of Rhest. Let's see how the PCs do against those razorfiends!

- Saph

[Matthew]

I can't comment much beyond saying that I am enjoying reading about the exploits of your group, Saph. Thanks for taking the time to keep us updated!

[Will_Shakespear]

Hi Saph.

Session 4• Human 2nd-level Marshal/4th-level Paladin (new player. I've never seen a Marshal played before, what do other people think of the class?)

I've played a Marshal once and i liked it. Some auras are really helpful and can give the party a nice boost. The Marshal's CHA-Modifier as a bonus to damage rolls, trip checks, saves etc. is a nice power boost, i guess. So i think the class has power, but is not overpowered. As with most things in D&D, the Marshal gets real power at high levels, where the CHA score can be real high, granting allies almost invincibility e.g. with high save boosts.

The Knowledge Devotion feat which the duskblade has picked up seems a little on the powerful side; any opinions?

The Knowledge Devotion feat is a strong one, i think. But i dont find it overpowered. You have to make very high Knowledge checks to get to the +5 bonus. So I think it becomes really powerful at high levels, where making the appropriate Knowledge check for the +5 bonus becomes easy. If the Duskblade is not totally cheesy and overpowered (getting the +5 against most enemies, most of the time) this feat will mean a nice boost for this campaign.

Cheerio

Will

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

I can't comment much beyond saying that I am enjoying reading about the exploits of your group, Saph. Thanks for taking the time to keep us updated!

I would like to second this!
I am happy I stumbled on this thread.

[Saph]

Well, I guess I'll keep writing it, then. :)

- Saph

[Matthew]

The lead-up to this week's session was dominated by in-group social politics, which were not fun to deal with. Spoilered because it doesn't really relate to the campaign.

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There'd been tensions building between some of the players for a while now, and after last week's session they came to a head. To cut a long story short, two of the players (the wizard and the barbarian) weren't willing to DM themselves, but weren't willing to accept the authority of any other DM either. After last week, I finally sent an email around telling players not to argue with my rulings or rules in-session, and to bring any issues they had to me after the game from now on. The two players in question both responded by quitting.

Having to discipline players is my absolute least favourite part of DMing (I hate playing schoolteacher), but I was glad I did it. After the initial reactions (angry emails, misinformation to the other players, attempts to start up a rival game) things settled down, and today's session was the most fun I've had as a DM in months. You don't realise how much of a drag some people are until you suddenly don't have to deal with them anymore.

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I forgot to say that I think you handled this exactly right. Nothing worse than people challenging your authority to interpret the rules in a game that relies on you doing so! I think it is out of fashion to say so now, but they sound like typical rules lawyer extremists. You are definitely better off without them (I also dislike that school teacher element of being the game master, but it is sometimes necessary).

The newly-made barbarian got killed, but that's what you get when you run 80' ahead of the rest of the party and charge the enemy lines solo.

Poor guy. Reminds me of this snippet of wisdom: The slaughter will continue until play improves.

Something interesting I've noticed is that blaster-casters are NOT ineffective in this campaign. Due to the large amount of enemies with low-to-medium HP (like the 13 HP goblin regulars) being able to toss a Fireball or a Scintillating Sphere into the middle of a bunch of them is a pretty effective method of crowd control.

I think the move in D20/3e towards fewer and more powerful monsters was largely a response to the effectiveness of spells like fireball in AD&D. In some respects, not including challenges where such spells are useful is contrary to the whole concept behind the D20/3e CR/EL system. Good to read this is not the case in Red Hand of Doom.

[RTGoodman]

Ah, glad to see this back. I look forward to hearing more about your party's forays against that Hydra in coming sessions. And actually, if they continue to not be able to beat it, you could be REALLY mean and have it show up at the Battle of Brindol or somewhere with the Half-Dragon or similar template tacked on. Just say the Red Hand hordes captured it and one of the higher-level casters did some experimentation to make it into a living weapon for the horde.

Regarding the Marshal/Paladin, I don't think you'll ever have to worry about him being overpowered, but he should be a pretty effective buffer/leader. The Marshal is usually seen as basically a one-level dip for Paladins or Diplomancers (which is why I did THIS bit o' homebrew a while back), but I like the fluff and think the Aura feature is pretty neat.

On AOE/damage-happy spellcasters, I agree that they work will in RHoD. As a military campaign, the set-up of having to deal with low-level fodder, mid-level elite troops, a higher-level leaders (the dragons, wyrmlords, etc.) really gives everyone a chance to shine, and I think really a blaster is sort of necessary if you don't have a trip-master or something.

When I've DMed, the one party I've had make it this far was SLIGHTLY ahead in VPs, but I don't think your PCs are in bad shape - the party wthat did make it that far was sort of newbish, so I went a little easier on them with a couple of encounters (yeah, I'm a bad DM ). At the end of the last session we played, though, they were thinking of heading to Rhest, but were trying to convince the leaders of Drellin's Ferry that evacuation was still the best option.