Previously in Chatty’s game:
Our heroes come out of a 2 year retirement period to tackle a slave ring operating from within an underground complex called Thunderspire Labyrinth. Shortly after making it into The Seven-Pillared Hall, the main civilized area of the Labyrinth, they located and wiped out one of the slavers’ cells . Using info gathered from raid, our heroes retraced the slavers’ main hideout and infiltrated it in the best possible way possible: find a secret way in and kill the surprised guards!
This week, we were invited to play at Mike’s at the eastern tip of town (Montreal is an Island). I knew I was in a different part of town when I stopped with Math at the convenience store to grab a few beers and noticed that the beer fridge was locked…
Oooookay!
Still, we made it safely to Mike’s, where everyone else were waiting for us. We were missing one player that night as Yan was on his way back from Florida. So the party was short of its only defender. The lineup was:
- Masaru: Eladrin Warlock (played by Franky)
- Fizban: Eladrin Wizard (Eric)
- Naquist: Elven Cleric (Math)
- Takeo: Dragonborn Warlord (Mike)
- Rocco la Muerte: Halfling Nuclear bomb Rogue (Steph)
I was initially worried that the game’s setup would be too shallow for the storytellers (i.e. all fight no story) and that said fights would be hard for the players because of the party’s lack of melee types. I was wrong on all accounts.
Once we settled down and were done chatting about movies and Operating systems (Topics: Tropic Thunder, Fight Club and Windows 7 Beta) we started playing again.
The PC’s had just cleared the first encounter, a group of goblin brutes and their bugbear Sergent guarding the entryway of the complex (called the Chamber of Eyes, an old temple dedicated to Torog, the god of frogs and evilness, he he).
So at this point we needed to address the always thorny point of “how do we explain that the fighter vanished in the middle of a dungeon”
Here’s how I decided to do it.
Masaru: “All right, let’s finish this”
Bjerm: “Huh guys? I need to return some movies like right now… ciao!”
Masaru: “Wha?”
That got a good laugh from the group… so that’s how it went!
The party had several possible paths to take in the small dungeon they were in.
Masaru went to the closed door closets to the side door they entered through and they heard a pair of humanoid speaking some strange language that wasn’t goblin.
“That’s where we go” said Franky and the whole group agreed. No exploration, no waiting around, they wanted to kick butt and they wanted to start right freaking now.
Since quarters were exceedingly cramped (the corridor leading to the door was 1 square wide), the party decided to see if another nearby door reached the same area. One very high Rogue perception roll later, it was confirmed that the second door led to the same area.
In fact the roll was so high (a natural 20) that I decided to goof around and started describing the whole room as if Rocco had been able to create a full simulation of the room’s layout based on sounds, vibrations and smells. That got a good laugh too.
A door was kicked, 2 duergar dwarves were truly surprised and bloodied instantly!
The PCs were unleashed in a torrent of steel and arcane powers. All classes worked beautifully together. The rogue dealt tons of damage, helped by the warlord who did everything he could place his striker buddies in the best positions possible.
The cleric played his support role perfectly. Blasting foes from afar with radiant blasts and healing everyone at the appropriate moment.
D&D 4e HP aside: I have read many accounts that said that monster HP are too high in 4e. That may be so, but so far in my group, monsters are killed as rapidly as their lower HP counterparts in earlier editions. The synergy of a group’s abilities combined with using every bonuses available seems to make up for the inflation. I’ve been told more than once that I should halve or even quarter the HP of monsters, I’m not so sure its necessary now that my group has hit the Performing stage.
As sounds of the battle spread into the compound, a hobgoblin warcaster and the slaver’s leader joined the fray. The PCs moved in to intercept them. When the hobgoblin leader realized that he had joined a losing battle, he sidestepped the fray and opened a door leading to 3 of his loyal archers and a Dire Wolf, ordering everyone in formation to provide suppressive fire.
That barely slowed the PCs. Once the Warcaster had been dealt with, the Rogue, Warlock and Warlord charged into the new room, facing the archers and the wounded hobgoblin leader. The Dire Wolf made a beeline toward the Wizard and cleric standing in the original room…
… Only to be frozen in place by the wizard (Icy blast) and be repeatedly blasted by his Flaming Sphere and the cleric’s Lances of Faith.
By the second round, when it could move again, the Wolf was down to 5 hp and ran away. Score for the casters!
While the hobgoblins managed to deal significant damage to the PCs (bringing the rogue to negatives once and pushing the warlord past bloodied), the heroes prevailed, especially when the cleric triggered the healing burst that is Beacon of Hope (equivalent to a healing potion for all without anyone spending healing surges) in an area that caught all PCs!
It’s been said before. When a group of 4e players, who’ve mastered the rules and their character’s abilities, start acting as a cohesive team, the level of efficiency soars tremendously.
While my friends became worried that I would start being pissed off at seeing all my monsters fall so fast, I was mostly just in awe of how efficient that group had become in just a few sessions.
Anyhoo, our Heroes raided the rooms’ contents, scored some gold and a powerful magic armor and rested a bit.
Up next: Cleaning up the compound and roleplaying interlude.
Most excellent write-up, as ever, CDM!
I agree entirely with you about player synergy and not needing to drop the Hit Point level when the players have it. Just wish my group had reached that point with 4e too 😀 I’m jealous.
When it comes to missing characters we try to take a cue from the movies (and comics) where groups split up all the time. It might be as simple as the missing characters have split up, turning left instead of right to explore further in a different direction, or maybe they were captured, necessitating their rescue next session on the players’ return. Or, as you did, the character’s just gotta be someplace else. Hmmmm. I feel a worthy blogpost hiding in there…….
greywulfs last blog post..The baggy trousered vampire
We’re still dealing with the missing player problem. Our (so far theoretical) solution is to have the other players handle the missing player’s character. They’re pretty good about deciding what s/he would or wouldn’t do based on past experience. The only issue is combat, and we’re still working out a solution for that.
Yeah, each group deals with the issue as they prefer. We decided to forgo any semblance of verisimilitude and we only field PCs of present players. The whole group is ready to suspend their disbelief so we go with it.
I’m writing part 2 just now, should be up later tonight.
Re: HP in 4e
Seriously, it’s not possible to maintain the belief that monster HP is too high if one has actually played the game. I run things hard (monsters 2-6 levels above the PCs), and the average lifespan of monsters goes thus (assuming no healing):
Most things: 1 hit
Brutes: 2 hits
Elites: 6 hits
Elite Brutes: 8 hits
Solos: 10 hits
Solo Brutes: 12 hits
Without even figuring out their best synergy, the party of level 2 characters from the last adventure I ran very nearly obliterated a level 8 solo brute, along with the couple of level 3 soldier-types he had with him. (Which got lucky and lasted a whole two combat rounds, one to kill each of them!)
While I have not seen non-minion monsters fall in one hit yet, they do fall in one or two rounds if PCs concentrate their fire.
I know that the first few fights in Thunderspire Labyrinth are easier than the one in Keep on the Shadowfell.
I must say that it was a refreshing break from the much harder fights the PCs went through in the previous adventures. It makes the players feel good and they’ll probably be ready for a harder challenge soon.