Primal/Within Chronicles: The Font of Sorrows, Session 2 Part 1

Previously in Chatty’s game…

Our new band of heroes are hired by the Burgomeister of one of the City Within’s agricultural burgs to investigate the tainting of its water supply.  The search lead them into an old Elemental Water temple guarded by spectral water wraiths.

After defeating the guardians, our heroes explored further and discovered a ghastly crypt where undead prisoners had been kept in glass coffins for centuries.  As Usul the Invoker launched a bolt of Radiance energy toward one such coffin, it triggered a magical chain-reaction that shattered all coffins, freeing the undead captives.

Dramatis Personae

Jaiel: Deva Avenger of Erathis, played by Yan

Corwin: Halfling Sorcerer (Chaos), played by Math

Usul: Elven Invoker of Kord, played by Mike

Fangs:  Shifter Warden, played by Eric

Rocco: Halfling Rogue, played by Stef

Dworkin: Dwarven Shaman, played by Franky, renamed from Korg (See below)

Prepping Notes

After the bonegrind of the last game, and after several of my players told me that it had been a painful night that left them wanting, I reviewed all the remaining encounters of the Font of Sorrows.

Its a good thing I did because the night’s first encounter would have been even more painful.

I originally had planned to have 6 Sodden Ghoul Wailers attack the PCs.  These marine ghouls are level 9 soldiers from the Open Grave source book. Instead of immobilizing PCs when they hit, they can do 2 claws attack to grab and rend PCs.  Once grabbed, the Sodden Ghouls can bite to daze its prey.

What made these guys problematic is that they each had a Close burst 2 attack that stunned (until save) any target hit.  Had I played this encounter as planned, I’d likely would have some fairly unhappy players spending the whole fight being stunned.

So, taking a lesson directly from the DMG, I modified the encounter as such:

I kept 2 Sodden Ghouls Wailers but I lowered them to level 7 (The PC’s level) and removed the stunning attacks.  I switched 3 other ghouls to Level 7 wights (Skirmishers) and I made the last ghoul into an Acidskull (just like the flameskull but only with glass/acid ranged attacks).

As we got ready to start playing, Franky told me that he decided to change the name of his Dwarven Shaman from Korg to Dworkin in order to avoid confusion with Usul’s god.

So with a Corwin (Halfling sorcerer) and a Dworkin in the party, we had a little Chronicles of Amber thing going on.

The Glass Crypt

The encounter took place in the area you see in the map to the right.  I added a 10′ wide walkway in the middle of the room so PCs could stay start on dry ground.  I made all water square into a hazard:  any creatures falling in the water would suffer an attack vs Fortitude that pushed them toward the grate on the western wall.  When I described the room to the players, I pointed out that the water current was very strong and decided, on the spot, to say that the grate was spiked!  I mean the rule on page 42 of the DMG needs to be used as often as possible, no?

The scene started with playing out the Invoker’s blast that shattered all coffins.  I allowed Mike to roll the attack to see if he would hit the ghoul sitting inside glass the coffin he was targeting and rolled a crit, almost dropping the creature to its bloodied point!  Damn! Invokers are cool against undead creatures!

Then all the undead rose from their shattered coffins.  The Acid skull said something about thanking the party for freeing them and saying that they had one last task to perform before being released from their servitude.

No one was surprised to learn that this task was attacking the PCs.

Initiative was rolled, the sorcerer sent a blazing burst against the skull and missed (still scoring respectable damage with 1/2 ).  The floating Skull retaliated by sending a burst of acid in the middle of the tightly packed party.  That made the skull threat #1 and was dispatched soon enough.

The remaining undead had to clear a 10′ gap to jump from their coffin to the dry platform, several of them failed and found themselves in the water.  The Wight managed to get a foothold on the platform and were able to drain the Warden and the Rogue of a few Healing Surges (bringing them at or close to zero).

The Ghouls managed to grab onto the Shaman and the Invoker but all players made good use of forced movement effects to break any grab.

The fight lasted 70 minutes and no player were ever in any real danger.  No PC feel in the water and no undead got impaled on my improvised spikes… Pity.

Were I to do the fight again, I’d leave the ghouls’ stunning attack and I’d make the central walkway at least 3 squares wide to allow better movement.  As things stood, the fight felt a bit crowded.

Oh and as Yan told me: Wights hit like little girls.  He’s right, makes me kinda sad to see my favorite undead be so threatening.  But they did the job of draining healing surges to make the next encounter more worrying for the PCs

Wandering Bulette looking for a good master.

Once completed, the PCs knew they had broken the curse that created the spectral guardians at the temple’s entrance.  The most pressing threat had been dealt with and the party returned to the temple’s main room featuring the Font and the Basin-Altar.  Climbing on the raised platform (area #6) where the altar stood, they elected to rest for a few hours.

Some PCs used up their very last healing surges while I rolled on my random encounter chart, resulting in a little visit by Spurt sometime during the rest period.

I was a bit worried that this might be too hard but some PCs still had suffcient ressources to feel confident in this encounter.

The runed Buletter came slowly into the room from the busted door, guided by the Dungeon’s psyche trying to get rid of the PCs.  Jaiel, who was on guard duty, had plenty of time to wake up the rest of the party.

Then Eric served me my first surprise of the game.  Instead of charging on the bulette, Fangs the Warden used his knowledge of Bulettes (Dungeoneering skill) to try to calm it. I guess that having no more healing surges makes even the most Gung Ho of butt kickers think twice.

He rolled high enough that I explained to him that while he gave it pause for a few seconds, giving the rest of the party a surprise round, something malevolent was controlling it.When my players said ‘it’s the dungeon doing it’, I was real proud to see them adopting the setting’s main flavour!

While the bulette stood confused for a few seconds, the group decided to try to subdue it.  I told Corwin that the runes on the bulette’s body were somewhat shoddy and that maybe if the party could identify some linked runes, he could try to unravel them and unweave some of the enchantments that made it such a strong monster.

What ensued was a good, well paced combat with an embedded skill challenege where players alternatively fought the monster and unraveled some enchantments on it (Thanks to reader BradG for the idea).  The runed Bulette had a thunderous breath weapon that dazed its targets and could also burrow under the floor to evade attacks and cause PCs to fall prone by passing underneath them.

Slowly, the PCs chipped at its HP while the sorcerer unweaved its defenses and special attacks.

Toward the end of the fight, I informed the party that the monster was getting very weak.  That’s when Eric surprised me again.

Fangs: “Spurt, Heel!” (Rolls a high number)

Chatty  DM (after a short pause): “The evil glow vanishes from Spurt’s eyes and it adopts a submissive pose toward the Warden”.

The PCs returned to the City Within, with the Warder triumphantly mounting the subdued Bulette.

You should have seen the grin on Eric’s face!

I was really happy with the way that the combat went. I really like embedding skill challenges in combat and will likely write an article on it soon, either for this blog or for another publication.  I’ll let you all know.

Up next: Short Roleplay session and late Boss Fight.