DM Chronicles, Session 2: When Cool Meets Satisfaction (Part 2).

Scene 3: Evil is a matter of style

Following the Self-Employed Mensa Troll, who just happened to be going where the map was leading, the PCs came into another burst Sewer tunnel leading into the darkness. That time, the passage looked like it had been man/thing made. This brought the party to a largish Cavern with a natural bridge over a 10′ wide chasm and a Guardpost.

Once there the party spotted a group of thugs led by an elven barbarian. They seemed to be holding a human prisoner. The Troll pointed at the outpost and said, rather forlornly ‘Pay or Die’. (I knew the encounter would lead to a fight, it was it’s whole idea, but I did not want the Troll joining in. I implied by its action and ‘Speech’ that it was playing it safe and not attacking anyone for the time being.)

The party initiated parley with the thugs. That was my cue for my ‘make a believable evil Bad Guy‘ challenge. I described the prisoner as severely mistreated and having a bloody mouth. When the 2 groups met, Baz, the Elven Barbarian leader of the thugs (slavers actually) dismissively greeted the PCs.

When asked about the prisoner, Baz said he was a criminal that was being brought to justice on the surface. (Sense motive rolls vs Thug’s Bluff, yeah he was lying big time). When challenged about this, he shrugged and said ‘ask him yourself’. Of course, when asked the question, the prisoner opened its mouth showing the recent, and violent, departure of his tongue. Smirking, Baz went on about how the prisoner did not seem to want to talk to the PCs. (I could feel the revulsion and the hate seeping in my more ‘moral’ players’). Then I had Cruger (the Hellbred Crusader played by Eric), who was standing beside the prisoner at that point, roll a Spot check. He noticed a dark stain on the prisoner’s shirt. Reaching in he took out a severed tongue attached on a string. At that point another strong point of the evening was reached: Eric went ‘That’s it!’ and picked up his d20. Challenge succeeded!

As Cruger the Crusader was unsheathing his Bastard Sword, the Prisoner gave him a knowing look and adopted a fighting stance too. The fight was a non-event. All thugs were mooks and the leader barely more so. During the fight one player said ‘This is easy’ and then another retorted ‘yes but killing mooks is always satisfactory!’ That’s what I call therapy by wanton mayhem!

The fight ended when the Barbarian was truly skewered and the last Thug fell on her knees, blaming it all on her now deceased boss (Thanks for the Idea Vanir, stolen and used!). Poetic justice was served when the party asked the prisoner what to do with her and he promptly smashed her head with his chains knocking her out (this is called a subverted trope).

Aside: I got to finally see the Crusader in action. The character has a certain number of pre-prepared maneuvers, very much like spells, that I hand to him on a random basis at every encounter. These maneuvers are announced before use and are triggered on a successful melee attack. Eric’s chosen maneuvers ranged from ignoring Damage Resistance (and dealing additional damage) to healing all allies in a burst of divine energy upon striking a foe. But the scariest one he has is a huge blast of divine righteousness that deals an extra 8d8 with no saving throw (they’re 7th level characters might I remind you). And that thing seems to be usable at least once per encounter, if he get’s the maneuver when I randomly hand one to him at each round. On the one hand I love the mechanics and the flavor, but I’m a bit taken back by the damage output from a melee character.

Aside on the Aside: I know that The Book of Nine Swords is a peek at the 4th edition rules and all these damage dealing maneuvers seem to be what will replace multiple attacks in D&D. I’m cool with that but I’m a bit worried that the other players, the Duskblade and the Dragon Shaman in particular might feel they are overshadowed by the sheer power of the Crusader and the Archer.

The prisoner turned out to be a young Nobleman from a House known for it’s shady dealings and piracy past (House Rau for the Prolus fans). Such house so happens to be an enemy of Cixi’s own house (Khatru, Very Conservative Military House). So while the PCs wanted to free him and let him go, at the last minute, Cixi went to him, opened his shirt and ripped out the tongue. They both exchanged a knowing look of hate and respect. Quelling the protests if the other players, the Ex-prisoner left calmly, dignity intact and a few months’ away from having the family priest growing a new tongue. (This was absolute pure Gold, Franky loved this and the players were shocked and appalled at Cixi’s callousness)

After the fight the Quatrzie the Troll re-took possession of the place and invited the PCs to drop by anytime. By super-trollian effort it managed the following speech: ‘Pay or Die….. But… Not You’. Oh the poetry! (I think I got me a new pet NPC). He also gave them a bauble, A carved piece of Spherical Onyx with trees on them.

Aside the second: During planning I decided that all Generic non-coin treasure would have one special flavor to them to be used as future plot hooks or McGuffins. Franky, a long -time Planescape fan, and reader of this here blog, meta-gamed this into ‘Portal keys!!!!’ Oh well…

Scene 4: When payback strike so hard you can’t even find the bodies.

It was getting late, some players were getting bleary eyed, we had to complete this soon. I was tired too and prone to ignore small things like difficult terrain and spot checks (Which is fine by me). The last scene featured a patrolling band of cowed Ratmen pushed by one of the remaining fiends, a Canoloth (think Plate-mail fused to a frog-dog). The players staked out the hideout and determined the perfect point to attack the patrol….

It was a massacre. All Ratmen were blinded by Lillie (Glitterdust is Good-aligned Mookticide). The Canoloth was killed before it could complete a summon by a quadruple assault by the party’s Melee and Artillery .

The Big Bad was found. It cast Darkness and promptly died in one rouind, cribbled by arrows and exploded by Cruger’s Fist of God finisher. Loot was distributed, XPs were given out. Roll credits, Fade to black…

Lessons learned:

• The Rule of Cool worked perfectly for me and the players. The evening was a success.
• The evening was not however a top 5 thing. It felt too easy for the players to generate enough frustration-to-satisfaction energy, especially after last game. But it was meant to be as such. Brilliant planning paid off, mooks were slain and the heroes got to be bad asses.
• I need to better monitor what I say and when I say it. If something needs to be kept a secret I need to moron-proof my notes/mental prep.
• I need to have a chat with the Hybrid characters players (Aravar is a Duskblade/Arcane Archer and the Nogard the Dragon Shaman is a melee buffer) because they run the risk of being outshone more than once in the future.

What players liked:

• The more flavorful NPCs.
• Squishing Mooks
• Having choices that bring low-level conflict
• Being allowed to take control of an encounter through planning.

What players disliked (
my
opinion):

• The Duskblade’s lack of ommph skil-wise and combat wise.
• Playing when too tired, I could have left the game a Cliffhanger on the initial spot check leading to the fight of Scene 4 (It was passed 9h30 PM by that time).

What’s next

• We’ll take a break from the Yugoloths.
• Work in the potential new protagonist into the plotline.
• I’ll adapt a published adventure about drug traffic and Ptolus’ criminal underworld that’ll bring the PCs to the 10th level.