Chatty’s Ptolus 4e Demo: A Tail of Two Shities, Part 2

See part 1 here.

Of Kobolds and Rats

As I mentioned in my pre-game post, the actual ‘dungeon’ of the adventure was a modified version of the Dungeon Master Guide’s ‘Kobold Hall’.  In fact, I took Area 1, 3 and 4 and modified them to my needs.  All kobolds became ratlings and I added a few other “ratty” monsters to complete the feel.

In the first room, the PCs met a group of ratlings who had recently finished dumping dwarven sarcophagi in a pit filled with bubbling green goop. (much to the disgust of the players, yay!)

As the PCs arrived, they saw a lone ratling standing behind the pit, lugging a large harpoon gun covered with tubes and strange flanges.

Elf Avenger: A device covered with tubes? It is a piece of Chaos!

(WalkerP cracks me up, he’s a calm, very stoic player, but he throws these character one-liners that are often priceless)

The fight started and the players started experimenting with their powers.  The Harpoon gun was shot but missed (bummer… it would have pulled PCs into the goop).  As the fight progressed, I showed various ways for each PC to be more effective: delay an action, use an area attack on a swarm, flanking, etc.

At one point, a Ratling Gunner (using a firearm made of junked pieces of other guns) shot the fighter in the face.

Chatty: Okay after the sting wears off, you find yourself covered in brown, exceedingly smelly goop…

Fighter: Ah Shit!

And thus was the shit gun introduced to the game. It set the tone for the rest of the evening and I experienced all the English poop jokes that could be made.   That one design decision made the whole game lighthearted and help  players focus on other things than combat numbers.

The fight was rapidly over and the players had their first short rest.  After resting, they explored the room for treasure (other than then Harpoon Chaos and Poop Guns). I decided to grant them a magic item so I randomly rolled a character and came up with the Dwarven Warlord.

Picking up the Player’s Handbook and flipping to the Magic Item section, I looked at level 1 armours (Canadian spelling FTW) and picked ‘Dwarven Armor”.

Chatty: Midnight, what armour type does your PC wear?

Midnight: Hmmm… chain.

Chatty: Wow, what an incredible coincidence!  That’s what you find!

Midnight and Rover: Of course!

Then followed a great piece of micro-storytelling.

Chatty: So guys, what is your PC stance on taking items from defiled dwarven tombs?

Midnight: Well, Dwarves are nothing if not practical…

Rover: Yeah, I mean the tomb has already been defiled, the ancestors would want this sacrilege punished, with all the help the avengers can get!

Both built such a convincing story, so similar to the one I would have told them if they had rolled a successful skill check, that I granted both a bonus action point.

The party moved on to the second room.  This room featured another pit of goop flanked by four sarcophagi and a set of double door behind the pit.  Two 10’ high platforms flanked the doors.

On each platform stood some Ratling Gunners and Younglings.  The Gunners were loading their guns with Fireshots and Gunkers  (I just renamed the Kobold Slinger special ammo).  The Younglings were throwing a tethered spiked metal ball across the room, trying to knock dwarven skulls off the sarcophagi.

This fight had 2 very interesting highlights.  The first one was when the Avenger climbed onto a sarcophagus and readied an action to “catch the rope on its next pass”.  When the ball came back, it struck him real hard.  Now had I been playing it by the rules, he’d have been pushed 3 by the ball (as the trap is written) before he got to do his readied action.

However, this is where the whole ‘being the DM’ kicks in.  I found the concept of the elven Avenger playing Tarzan so cool that I wanted to give WalkerP a chance to succeed.  So after he took the damage, I told him to roll (an attack or a Dex check, I forget) to catch on the ball before being pushed away by it.  He made the roll and I moved his PC right up the platform where a gunner and 2 ratling minions were.

So…freakin’ cool.

Later in the scene, Rover’s fighter tried to jump/climb the 10′ platform and failed, ending his turn at its base.  In the same turn, the Warlord wanted to try the same thing, so I suggested he uses his Dwarven colleague to boost himself (using the fighter as a 5′ high stair, allowing him to get on the platform without a climb check).  I decided so because I judged that the fighter had already paid with his failure and that the wall had played it’s obstacle role enough in that fight.  That’s also why I allowed the fighter to climb, helped by the warlord, without a roll on his next turn.

Both events contributed at accelerating the fight because it brought the melee PCs to bear on the monsters faster.

Oh, also worthy of note, the Sleep spell SUCKS in some circumstances!  I know that knocking monsters out in one shot would break Elite and Solo encounters, but having lvl 1 humanoid artilleries and minions have to miss a save to drop unconscious is really bad.

The fight was concluded rapidly, 2 Younglings, a Gunner and a Dire Rat were killed.  The rest ran deeper into the tunnel/tomb complex.

Chatty: Okay guys, it’s 10h30PM and I can see oi your faces that you’re getting tired so we can wrap it up here.

White Wolf: Oh, don’t mind our yawning, it’s on par for our Friday Night games.

Midnight: Yeah, we can continue no problem.

Chatty (surprised): Cool!  Thank god I prepared the next area right before you guys showed up.

And so our adventurers set out for the final chamber…

Up next: I love Rat Ogres!