DM Chronicle: Session 4, This.is.Epic! Part 1

(You know what I miss in this blog?  Me being chatty like hell… time to change that!)

Previously in Chatty’s Game:

Our heroes discovered an ancient Serpent Temple where lost magic was recovered from the coils of spectral ophidian guardians. Following sinuous caverns, they came upon an opening high over the ruins of a Lost City inhabited by Ape Men.

Through a series of strangely choregraphed dealings with some Ape Mages, the party was brought to a temple of Tiamat, only to be ambushed by hundreds of Apes and a Green Dragon Wyrmling.

Seeing only one possible escape route, our railroaded heroes entered the temple, barred the only way in, dodged yet another fiendish trap and finally came face to face with the engineer of this cavalcade: Dragora, Pirate Scholar soldier of the Dreaded Crimson Fleet…

Fixing a broken PC
This week, we had 2 missing players:  Math (playing Naquist, Elven Cleric of Bahamut) and Eric (Fizban, Eladrin Wizard) had family-related activities to attend to.  As usual, the PCs faded off camera and I planned the scenes accordingly.

Mike (playing Takeo, the dragonborn tactical Warlord)  arrived first and we played some Rockband. Then I asked him to show me his character sheet (and power cards).  I had noticed in the last three games that his character was under performing when compared to all other classes in the group.  He kept missing crucial attacks and wasting daily and encounter left and right.  While I initially chalked it up to a bad luck streak, I started suspecting that something was amiss.

I mean D&D 4e has been meticulously designed to be balanced right?

It turns out that he’s using power cards that don’t have spaces to mark the total attack bonus.  His cards only mention things like Str vs AC and whatnot. Not having yet fully mastered his 4e-Fu,  whenever Mike made an attack roll, he only used his actual Str bonus and nothing else!  Since he’s level 2 (+1) and has a Longsword (+3), he was depriving himself of half of his allowed Bonus!  So we corrected that and Mike was happy!

FYI: It showed in the game!

“Inter-review” with a 4e scholar!

Around that time, Yan (playing Bjerm the Elven fighter) arrived.  Yan is by far our most accomplished 4e Scholar.  In fact, earlier that week, I received a review copy of Goodman Games’ Forgotten Heroes, a 4e compatible sourcebook with the  Barbarian, Bard, Druid and Monk class. Since Yan is more versed in class analysis than yours truly, I had asked him to read it.  Shortly after he arrived, we spent a few minutes doing a recorded interview where I asked him his thoughts on the product.

We both liked doing this a lot and I’ll post the ‘Inter-Review’ of that in the coming week.  I think this could be a recurring feature if people like them.

The finer points of 4e team battle tactics
Stef (Roco, Halfling Rogue) arrived shortly after that and we discussed group battle tactics since all three players control the melee-built PCs.  We agreed that the best strategy was for the Fighter, Warlord and Rogue to form a triangle, with monsters in the middle whenever possible.  That way, the Warlord can help the other two in shifting and setting up effective strikes. The Fighter can then control key opponents with his battle challenge and combat superiority features while the rogue sets up vicious backstabbing attacks.

I told them that as a DM, my job was to disrupt this strategy by breaking the triangle, or controlling it with minor opponents while I was going for the cleric and Warlock hanging in the back.

Dude, were you planning to start playing at one point?
Franky (Masaru, Eladrin Warlock) finally arrived and we were all here.  It was around 5h15 PM (i.e. earlier than usual) so we agreed to start playing before ordering some food.

Since my laptop was set up at the gaming table, I decided to start Twittering about the game.  It was a fun experiment, but it did end up being too distracting to me as I was not always paying full attention to the game, writing Twitters and reading the reader’s responses. (It does make writing this report a LOT easier though).

As the group was settling into ‘playing D&D’ mode, the players started sharing who had what skills and how they’d handle non-combat situations. This was a very interesting piece of team building. After a few minutes, I finally pointed the battlemap where I drew the Temple’s throne room (why do temples have thrones BTW? Fridge Logic moment!) and we started the…

Obligatory NPC-that-PCs-fail-to-take-seriously scene.
Dragora, a Dwarven Scale-clad human warrior was lazily waiting for them.  Proudly wearing the colors of the pirates of the Crimson Fleet, she tried to invite the PCs to sit down on cushions and sip some wine while they discussed why she brought them here.  Of course, our genre Savyy heroes (not-so) politely refused the offer of hospitality, preferring to stay standing while trading barbs with her.

I’ve long since abandoned the idea that I should expect Players to respect  NPCs, especially villains. I long since learned to resist the very predictable “NPC attacks when DM starts being frustrated” reflex.  In fact it doesn’t bother me anymore.  That scene had one goal: Tie in the adventure to the PC’s background and convey a few pieces of Info.

For the rest, NPCs with battlestats are just props to be exploded all over the walls.

So Dragora starts by apologizing for the horrendous acting skills of her Ape Men, saying it’s really hard to choreograph those slave-mentality minions in a semblance of sentience. (Cynics would say I was doing some CYA, I call this self-derision, he he he).  She said that getting the heroes in the temple was her goal all along.

“Why did you try to slice us into lunchmeat then”

“Oh come now, We can’t have this too easy!”

She then started her Villain Monologue®. She discovered this lost city a few weeks ago… right after the PCs killed her brother-in-law during a Pirate raid of a halfling Venture Fort (I love that term! I need to flesh this out one day). When she discovered the Scrying Pool she hatched a plan to lure the PCs away from Hobble Port so the Crimson Fleet could exact its vengeance against Brandobaris the Fat! (i.e the PCs current patron)

She then said that Bradobaris was dead and that the city lay in ruins.  For a seconds, some of the players made a “ah shoot’ face… which was worth the whole scene.

As I summarized on Twitter: Players exchange banter with Boss. They point out how dumb she is, she answers being smart was not a prerequisite to lure them away.

Up next: An Epic Battle and the PCs taste defeat for the first time.

Credits: Clyde Caldwell (Image)