DM Chronicle: Session 4, This.Is.Epic! Part 2

See Part 1 here.

Rumble in the Temple!

Now that Dragora had finished saying what she had to say, the PCs attacked. Or maybe she did, I forget, these accounts are not renowned for their journalistic accuracy.

Dragora was a level 7 soldier based on the Fighter Template. I added 3 Zain-Kin minions and one Infiltrator (a skirmisher), rounding the encounter to a level 3-4 encounter.

To make the somewhat classic room (30’x35′ room with a throne) a bit more exciting, I added the poisoned cushions described in the adventure on the battlemap and a pair of “Hellfire Braziers”. I then finished the map with some squares filled with Dragora’s spoils from the Lost City (See picture).

Both cushions and braziers were made into interactive terrain features, I’m reproducing them for you here (Sorry I haven’t taken the time to figure out formatting traps and zones as the 4e books yet):

• Poison Cushions
  • Sitting on them: As per adventure (It’s an attack vs Fort, making the target take ongoing poison damage and immobilized (Save ends) and then make the target immobilized.
  • Passing through a cushion square: No effect
  • Kicking a Cushion in someone’s face:
    • Std action, Dex vs Fort attack
    • Hit: As per sitting on them
• Hellfire Brazier
  • Can be knocked over (Std action, AC 17 if targeted by a ranged attack)
  • Blast 3 from brazier’s initial position, +5 vs Reflex, Hit: 1d10+3 fire + 2 ongoing fire damage (Save ends), Miss: 1/2 Damage, no ongoing damage.

The combat started with Dragora trying to kick a cushion on a PC’s face and missing.  The players, not yet knowing what those cushions did, were perplexed… until I described how a white powder cloud exploded out of the cushion when it hit the wall.

Then the Infiltrator came in and bloodied Roco in one hit.

All PCs, knowing who was the important target made a beeline for Dragora and managed to make her bloodied (i.e. deal 43 hp) in one round.  This, mostly because of the Warlock inflicting his Curse of the Dark dream on her, damaging Dragora’s psyche by making her believe that SHE was responsible for her brother-in-law’s death!

He he he!

On Dragora’s turn, she screamed ‘Rise’ in Draconic and promptly skewered Bjerm the Fighter with her own daily power, dropping him well into negatives.  She then Jumped on the now rising throne platform on its way to the Temple’s roof.

The Infiltrator was moving around the map, chasing bloodied characters against whom it scored a ton of bonus damage.

Then someone (PC or the inflitrator) finally tried kicking a cushion and hit!  All players went ‘Ohhhh’ and soon enough the fight degenerated into a kicking cushion contest (The effect is just too strong not to use, I recommend stopping the effect at the 1st save).

On the end of round two, Dragora was finally KOed (they elected not to kill her) and was soon to be dragged away from the rising platform.  That’s when…

…Enter(ed) the Dragon!

Mouringlar, Wyrmling (i.e medium-sized) Green dragon swooped in the room, trying to save her mistress.

That’s when the players said the magic words that sing to a DM’s ears:

“Man, this is an epic fight!”

So after doing a flyby attack on its first turn, the dragon suffered a few attacks of opportunities by trying to grab Dragora and flee, ending its turn a mere 5′ up from the temple floor.

That’s when players went Cushion Crazy on the dragon, trying to prevent it from leaving, managing to immobilize the dragon for a good 3-4 rounds. It managed a few hits, and one breath, poisoning a few PCs.

Then, when it finally stopped being immobilized, I surveyed the situation.  The fighter, healed earlier with the timely use of Takeo’s the Warlord inspiring word (“That pain is in your mind, it’s only a flesh wound!”), was sitting beside the dragon, having marked it.

Yeah, Bjerm with his Combat Superiority class feature was soooo ready to prevent Greenie from leaving .

I re-read the dragon’s flyby attack (it had recharged since) and noticed that it did not provoke AoA, thereby making the fighter’s Combat Superioity moot.  I used the power, biting the fighter and leaving the room with the unconscious Dragora.

The crestfallen heroes could only, through an opening between the risen pillar and the Temple’s roof,  witness Mouringlar grab a 5-headed dragon key from Dragora’s inert body, place it somewhere, activate a portal and leave the Lost City for good.

They managed to kick the last few cushions in the infiltrator’s face, finished the fight and took a short rest, while outside, a growing clamor of anger and outrage rose.

During that rest, Masaru the Warlock had an insight.  He took a few drops of blood of Dragora and dropped them in the Scrying pool found on the temple’s previous level.

They were able to see a wounded Dragora aboard a huge Airship guarded by a no less huge Red Dragon!  She had a smirk on her face, telling someone outside of scrying range that the plan worked perfectly!  The players were also able to get a glimpse of a bound and gagged, very much alive Brandobaris.

Simian City Blues

Once rested, the party reactivated the rising platform to reach the temple’s roof and witnessed a few thousand raging simians spread around the pyramid, going all Planet of the Apes on them.

On the platform were 2 features I had added to spice things up:

The Pool (10’X5’X5′):

This pool is filled with a divinely charged fluid whose elemental properties change every few seconds or so.  Each round, when necessary, roll on the table below to determine the composition of the pool’s content.

1. Fire (2d6+3)
2. Acid (2d6+3)
3. Cold (2d6 +3)
4. Electricity (2d6+3)
5. Poison (1d6+3 + 5 ongoing, save ends)
   
6. Unholy Water (-2 to all d20 rolls Until end of Next Turn)

And

The Dragon Turrets

4 Colored Dragon head shapes turrets stand, one in each corner of the Temple’s Roof.  There’ s one red, black, Green and Blue head (The white one is destroyed and stands over the stairs)

A mechanism of tubes and controls is visible behind each head.  These were ancient mechanism used to spew blasts of elemental energies during sacrifice ceremonies.  A DC 15  thievery check allows to push one more use out of each of them: + 7 vs Ref, Blast 4, 2d10+3 Damage of the appropriate type.

A 20+ result on the DC check pumps out more juice and allows to deals 3d8+4 damage.

A Dungeoneering/History DC 17 check reveals the use of theses contraptions.

Followed a skill challenege of my creation, since at this stage, the adventure assumes that all bloodlusted apes charge the PCs, which have no other choice but to activate a portal and flee.

Instead, I had each of the 4 factions of the city (Unaligned, House Military, House Mages and House Assassins) be arranged around the temple, ready to storm it.

Then, 4 voices shouted in unison all around the pyramid and all apes stoped screaming as one.

Baffled, players rolled perception checks and noticed one calm, expectant ape standing arms crossed within each factions of temporarily frozen apes.   One of them gestured toward the PCs, indicating that they had a chance to address the whole city.

Turns out I had decided to create a fifth, hidden faction of free-willed apes that wanted to see what it was the Heroes wanted of them all before deciding to kill them, let them live or become a potential ally. These hidden leaders knew the proper incantations and verbal orders to control all others.

Using bluff and History, the Heroes were able to appease most factions by describing how cowardly and without honor Dragora was and how she had manipulated everyone here in making them believe Moringlar was an Avatar of Tiamat.  All factions but one, the Military house, stopped being hostile.

They even got that last faction to stand down when they challenged its leader to a duel.  The Military leader, only too happy to oblige, brought his retinue of 8 minions, 4 legionnaires and one wizard to face the tired, out of daily powers PCs.

Do you see a problem with that picture?  Yeah, somewhat of a brainfart on the part of the DM here… as within 3-4 rounds, all PCs were either dying or had surrendered.  At least the Rogue got to trigger one of the Dragon turrets and fry a few minions.

Yeah, players were kinda bummed at that point…

That’s when apes from all other factions moved in on the triumphant military leader and took him down before he collected his “kills”.  All PCs were stabilized and were politely but firmly asked to leave the Lost City by the portal over the Temple.

A scroll, destined to the leaders of the Surface world was entrusted to them. It announced that the Lost City of Parhok was a sovereign state and was under the control of the peaceful Zain-Kin.

Our Heroes found themselves by the crevice where their whole underground adventure started. While resting, they were found by some Griffin mounted elven rangers out looking for them.

They were informed of Brandobaris’ kidnapping and that the heroes were being summoned to Hobble’s Point, where Brandobaris’ half-Elven lieutenant awaited them to confirm the rapt and the ludicrous ransom demanded by the Pirates.

The Heroes agreed to mount a rescue mission and tracked the airship down to its home port, near the Dragonborn Island kingdom of the south and free Brandobaris.

Takeo knew exactly where that was… opening a new storyline about the link between the human pirates and the proud, militaristic dragonborns.

Lessons Learned:

• Adding interactive elements to a battle encounter is good way to make combat more interesting.  The goal is to make theses elements at least as attractive as at-will powers (i.e. have a good risk to benefit ratio).
• That Ape encounter was too strong for the PCs, next time check the level of an encounter if tackled by a party with less than full resources.

What players liked:

• The Epic battle!
• The Skill challenge pitting them against thousands of opponents

What players disliked:

• The pace being broken by the DM’s frantic Twitter typing on his keyboard, this will not occur again.
• Defeat, no one likes that… Although they took it stoically, lending a certain air of seriousness to the whole campaign.