Session Review

So I’m actually writing some of this session review before the session happens. I’ve got some pretty intense stuff happening this time around, and I figured it would be best if I could just get some of it down before the session goes live, and fill in the blanks when it’s done. Obviously, I’m going to erase this introduction before I publish the post, but it’s nice to have a draft to come back to when the session’s done.

The first thing to take a good look at is the Social Combat system. I’ve designed the Headmaster at the Extreme Library around this sort of encounter as a solo who will give up when he’s bloodied. With completely average damage rolls, it will take 19 hits to finish him off; not a ton, just enough to see how the system works and where it needs to be tweaked a bit. Here, have the whole encounter!

This is how things usually go at the Extreme Library:

 

1. You go to the front desk and request a book.
2. The bookaneers go and get that book for you. This can take weeks.
3. Depending on the level of difficulty getting the book, you pay a fee.
4. You get your book.

 

The player characters are on something of a time-budget, though, and can try and convince the woman a the front office to let them go after the book themselves. That will, of course, cost something, as the Extreme Library makes all of it's money from it's book delves. Determining whether or not the players will be able to get the books for themselves (and at what cost) will be a Diplomatic Encounter.

 

Roll Initiative: d20 + (half level + charisma modifier + misc. initiative mods)

 

On your Turn: Choose Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate as a Fight, Defend or Manouever action. Roll that skill vs. the opponent's Passive Insight. If the check is successful:

 

Fight: Deal 2d6 + Charisma Modifier damage.
Defend: Choose a creature. That creature may spend a healing surge.
Manouver: Opponent suffers a -2 skill penalty to Insight (save ends).

 

 

So looking at his stats, he’s got a social AC of 22, and a +14 to hit on most of his attacks. That’s pretty much in line with level 10 rolls, though he was hit a little too often, and didn’t do enough damage to be a real threat.

The player characters actually knocked this guy around pretty easily, and it was slowly turning into a slog at about the point he was bloodied. They were going on all-out attack, which is fine against a guy like this, but he simply wasn’t dishing out damage on a level to be a decent threat. I think the next social combat encounter is going to be a lot higher on the damage dealt, with a higher Insight check; I want to see people using Maneuver and Defense rolls as well as just straight-up attacking.

The second thing I’ve done today is fuck with movement a bit. I incorporated a bunch of notes that constitute something of a miniature skill challenge; success on the skill challenge means you don’t take boatloads of damage.

The Extreme Library is built into the side of a huge ocean-facing cliff. It falls thousands of feat, hangs miles over the ocean (held up by the Cage Spires), and some say that the bottom is some sort of dimensional rift to where every book ever made in every language, written on every possible material has come to rest. It is an insanely dangerous place, due to the huge number of dangerous creatures that guard the various tomes of incredible value here and the certain doom that awaits anyone who falls.

 

The "broomsticks" that the party has are basically useless here; you can only fly a number of squares above the ground equal to your speed, and the number of squares between the ground and the Library are "infinite."

 

To get around on the walls here, they will need climbing and rappelling gear. The DC to climb down, using appropriate equipment, is 5 (just with half their level, every PC makes it); the shelves make for easy climbing, as there are plenty of hand and foot holds, but it is exhausting work (DC 22 Endurance check every hour, or lose a healing surge).

 

The combat map will be flipped on it's side, today, with one side being "Up," the other "Down." You can move up to your speed Up with a DC 25 athletics check or half your speed Up with a DC 15 athletics check. You can move an extra two squares Down with no climb check.

 

With a DC 20 athletics check, you can also "swing," which allows you to "fly" up to half your speed side-to-side (and diagonally down), but you need to begin and end your move action on the "ground."  While swinging you can make a melee basic attack as a minor action once any time during movement, without provoking an opportunity attack. You may swash your buckle at any time during this movement or attack.

 

Attacks that require two hands CAN be done, but provoke an Immediate Interrupt from Gravity that slides the character two squares.

 

If you fall prone, fall ten squares and take 2d10 damage. Your rope will save you from most of the damage, but not all of it.

The party made it through the first encounter using these rules, and while they didn’t look any different on the map, the shift in perspective from top-down to side-scroller resulted in a few moments that couldn’t have happened otherwise. Things like “falling as a charge” or “jumping on the gargoyle’s back” that would be completely ridiculous in a top-down map orientation.

We fought some bookend gargoyles, and a bookworm (just normal gargoyles, and a scythejaws that had its speed reduced to zero). Good times were had.

Drow, Dirigibles, Duels and Drunkenness

I didn’t get a chance to write a session review for Monday’s session, mostly because I was piloting a starship around the galaxy blasting Klingons with lasers – the game isn’t an RPG per se, but it’s a pretty good game about space ships and lasers.

We start the session off with Babagya tottering away screaming “I’ll get you, my pretties!” and our heroes looking a bit worse for wear. They had been heading to Babagya’s old home, Muidercrag, to see if they might learn something more about the Big B’s history, and while she was headed straight north, they crew decided to steer their chicken-hut north east and investigate the village.

The village is a burnt out husk of what was once a thriving little community. Parts of the town have been burned to cinders, while others stand mostly whole, but the whole place is completely unlivable. Give any ghost town twenty years to grow over, and shit starts falling down, plants start growing up where there shouldn’t be plants, and the whole place goes to pot. Memphis occasionally catches a glimpse of Muidercrag as it once was, complete with dwarven citizens and animals and the like. They decide to get down into the city and see if they can figure out what’s going on with that, when the sun falls behind the mountains and the whole place comes alive, with building standing as they once were, dwarven citizens, sights, smells, tastes, the works.

A little girl tugs on Skull’s sleeve and asks for her help. Skull is right freaked out by this, and it turns out the little girl is actually a manifestation of Babagya-as-she-once-was. She explains that she’s going to kill them all, and gives each of them a doll representation of themselves.

When the sun comes up and the village returns to it’s natural, burnt-down state, they decide to leave the village, meeting Francois on the way out. He’s bringing some of the gear to start making the wall that will surround Muidercrag, tells them a bit more about the history of the place and how experiences like the party’s own are why they’re walling the place off. It’s a cursed place.

Also, there is a message for Skull, from her mother. Seems she wants Skull to come home, and it’s rather urgent.

As home is in the direction Babagya went, the whole crew heads north to the Spine of the World. The spine is a long expanse of arid land between two enormous cliff-faces that drop off into the world-ocean. On either sides of the spine, reaching impossibly high into the air, are the Cage Pillars. These huge stone cliffs are where the dragons are born. There are cities and towns along the Spine, and a network of roads. Far in the distance, smoke is rising from the captial city.

The chicken-hut is stopped by a patrol of a drow sheriff and his deputies and searched. They don’t seem to believe that Skull is who she says she is, understanding Mathilde of the Draconia Family to be dead over twenty years ago, about the time Skull ran away from home. They quickly search the chicken-hut, not taking anything for fear that whatever they take will dissolve a few hours later, and let the party pass. A few minutes later, they’re stopped by another patrol, and go through much of the same process. This time, though, the patrol is actually a group of polymorphed turtle-minions, who attack the party and are quickly put down.

Reaching the capital, they find the place overrun with turtle-minions, and two colossi are rampaging through the streets! The palace is empty, save for a few looters, who tell Skull that her mother is in fact at the farmhouse. They party moves south, avoiding the colossi for the time being, as Babagya cackles at them from the roof of the palace.

They come across a small hut in the middle of a poorly-tended farm. A single drow sits on a rocking chair with a crossbow in his lap and a piece of straw sticking out of his mouth.

“Good to see you again, Princess,” he says as Skull moves past him into the house. There’s a trapdoor that leads down into the basement, and the stairs are impossibly long, hundreds of flights to the bottom. When they reach the bottom, it leads to one of the colossus platforms the party is used to fighting the monsters on, a huge cliff-face built to house a single massive colossus. Skull’s mother and her step-father, an enormous black dragon, are conferring there with a few drow generals.

Drow magic on the spine is, by necessity, dragon magic. That Skull is a storm sorcerer has always been a point of consternation between her and her mother, but today, she is needed for exactly that talent. One of the colossi destroying the drow capital city has some strange control over wind and rain and lightening, and to get close enough to rid the streets of turtle-minions, they drow army needs to fly in on airships. They need Skull to “turn the colossus off,” for a while, giving them a window to get in and take the little zombie bastards down.

When the streets are clear, the party is the only group in the world with experience taking down colossi, so those will be the responsibility of Skull and her crew. Skull is infuriated.

“Did anyone even try to fight the colossi as they were stomping on people?”

“You noticed they were stomping on people?” her mother countered. “That’s what happened when they tried to fight.”

The party is given access to three airships, while Bruk Hearteater goes with Garuush, the dragon, to recruit the aid of more dragons as needed. Memphis and Bruce keep the colossi occupied while Skull tries to take down the storm colossus’ powers over the weather, and though the fight is close, they manage to build a window for the drow fleet to get in and kick some ass.

They rest for a while, as a horde of dragons and airships take out the easier foes. Garuush suggests that he could, with some help and some time, make the chicken-hut fly, and gets to work on that. The party goes to take care of some colossi.

The fight was very different than the other colossus fights they’ve done so far. These foes are, individually, less powerful than a single colossus would be, but taken together the fight is quite a bit tougher. There are still a few turtle minions around, and they’re pretty effective at fucking with people’s shit. And each colossus is still a pretty nasty foe. There are some huge stunts done by both colossi, though the best move of the day is when one of them burrowed down into the earth and exploded out from a building to grab one of the airships in mid-flight.

Halfway through the fight, Bruk and Garuush swoop down to help, and though Garuush is hardly an expert fighter, their help is welcome. Skull and her step-father have a touching family moment, where she accepts him as her “Dad,” and they take the last colossus down together.

Then, drunkenness. The party was pretty close to levelling up, so we decided to do some carousing for experience points. While most of the players get away with just enough experience to level up, Skull goes well above and beyond, and wakes up on the altar of a local temple, with a horde of Babagya’s cultists working dark magicks upon her body… and her soul…

The Tournament

Teams:

Team F*cking Lazorz – A group of Dungeons & Dragons: Encounters veterans, looking for a taste of glory in the tournament arena.
Team Fighting Mongooses – Coming in from the outside, this team of Warp One freshmen is here to prove themselves to the competition.
Team Los Angelas Lakers – Under the vicious Game Mastery of the Magnificent Matt Bowes, this team of old pros and veterans is ready for anything.
Team Srs Bzns (Serious Business) – Longtime D&D players, this team has limited experience with 4th, but this is balanced by a burning desire to crush the competition.
Team Vagina – Three women with a chip on their shoulder and dice in their hands, Team Vagina has been prepping for this tourney for months.

This is, to my knowledge, the only Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition tournament in Edmonton. If this turnout is any indication, it will not be the last. In our first round, we had Team Lazorz fighting the much-lauded Team Vagina, while the Lakers took on Srs Bzns. Team V has been planning for this tourney for two months, planning and tweaking and building and rebuilding, practicing and talking a big game. There has been a lot of buzz, and people have been talking; can they live up to the hype?

On the second table against the Lakers, Srs Bzns’ Assassin Jordan Thompson took a third-turn kill, taking down Jeff Turner’s Paladin/Cleric Hybrid with a 4-shroud swing for 35 damage. Shortly after, Srz Bzns’ own Warlord, Tim Griffith, and their defender, Berni Jugdutt, go down. Thompson goes in for the kill against both opponents and crit-fails. The Lakers fire back with two critical hits in a row!!! Thompson weathers the blow, thanks to a well-timed Shade Form.

The Laker’s rogue, Ian Bowes, falls from four to zero, and finally goes down, leaving their monk, Marcus Cunningham (at three hit points), alone against Thompson’s assassin (also at three hit points!!!). Thompson tries to hold the monk off, but Cunningham gets in for the final blow, using an at-will weapon power to sneak in the final damage.

Teams Vagina and F*cking Lazorz are stuck at a stalemate, each trading blows and healing with equal proficiency. The teams are well-built, tough and terrifying. Vagina’s cleric drops to as low as three hit points before casting Healing Word on herself, the lowest anyone has dropped in the match so far.

Slowly, Lazorz whittles Team Vagina down, but the girls are well tuned to taking damage and living through it. It goes to time, the full 90 minutes, and though Anna-Marie Million, the team’s warden, fell to negative hit points, her team was able to revive her in time to pull it to a draw.

Round two features Team Vagina facing off against the Fighting Mongooses, and the Lakers against the Lazorz. Team V gets off to a rough start as Stephanie Adams, the team’s cleric, falls to 49 damage over two rounds. Next round, Mark Oleschuk delivers the coup de grace on the cleric, crippling Team Vagina for the rest of the round.

On table one, the stalemate finally ends with a vicious coup de grace against Ian Bowes, the Laker’s Rogue, from Brodie Williams, the Team Lazorz battlerager’s. A few turns later, Mike Wright gets off a big turn, hitting for heavy damage and dazing Jeff Turner’s cleric until the end of his next turn.

On table two, Holly Booth rocks her daily for 28 damage, reduced heavily by the fact that Andrew Hryciuk’s swordmage has her marked. Mark Oleschuk takes out Anna-Marie Million, making that his second coup of the night, leaving Holly Booth as the last woman standing on Team Vagina. Overwhelmed by three opponents, she fell to Oleschuk’s blade.

Marcus Cunningham busts his Spinning Leapord Maneuver to drop Daniel Lamoureux, Team Lazorz’ bard, to –6 hp as the players scatter across the map. Brodie Williams drops Jeff Turner, leaving Marcus Cunningham the last man standing on Team The Los Angelas Lakers. He puts up a valiant fight, dropping Williams to one hit point before a Fury of Blows took him out. Mike Wright finishes the job, taking Cunningham out with an at-will.

Round Three pits the Lakers against the Mongooses, and the Lazorz against Srs Bzns. Berni Jugdutt drops Mike Wright with a critical hit on an encounter power, taking him to over half his negative-bloodied value in a single shot.

On table two, the Lakers start with a distinct disadvantage, their rogue starting at a mere 8 hit points. The Mongooses take quick advantage, bringing him down, but things get gummed up when Cunningham begins regenerating 5 hit points per turn.

Griffith heals himself for 29 hit points, taking him from near-helplessness to back-in-the-game in a single turn, and Wright is taken out of the round by Jugdutt’s coup de grace. Thompson crits on an at will, taking Lamoureux down and le aving Williams the last man standing, who goes down quickly with Srs Bzns pressing the 3-1 advantage.

Cunningham and Turner start to turn up the heat, but Olanchuk’s rogue is still rocking the Lakers hard. His +11 to strike comes as a bit of a shock to some, as an optimized rogue build should. The Mongooses continue to press the advantage, and pull the Lakers down, asserting their primacy in this, the first Dungeons & Dragons tournament held at Warp One Comics and Games.

A Few Issues We Need to Deal With

Byes work well in some ways, but they’re pure win in Dungeons & Dragons, especially when people don’t get their healing surges back between matches. The last round this was especially notable, as the Lakers were sitting with one character at no Healing Surges, while the Mongooses hadn’t had to spend many, having come into the fight with only a single round of combat behind them. It was a lopsided advantage, and it determined the outcome of the match.

Backgrounds are, from this point forward, banned from Dungeons & Dragons tournaments. They have a fairly specific purpose, and that purpose has nothing to do with tournaments.

Timing. I was originally planning on 50-minute rounds, but we ended up going to 90-minutes because 50 was far too restricting. That time-limit worked just fine, so I would suggest that if you’re going to do this somewhere else.

Overall, the tournament was a good time, and we’ll be doing it again. After I get back from Europe, I’ll be setting the next time and date. ^_^

Hair Metal Elves and Giant Phase Spiders

So the party had been hired on to retrieve a mysterious book from a powerful witch-woman who was apparently using it to destroy the world. They arrived in time to discover her waking up the Colossus of Tarsil, kick the crap out of the huge rock-man. Babagya the witch woman, sadly, escaped. 

The trip back was uneventful, and they stopped in at town to gather some information and prepare for the next leg of the journey. Bruk bought an executioner's axe for 15 gold and a song (literally), and the group informed the Archbishop of Geth that they had not yet retrieved his book, but did have some pretty solid information on the person who had it. The Archbishop was not entirely impressed, and made it very clear that the book was incredibly important and that the Library would need it back as soon as humanly possible. Horses were made available, and a stable-girl named Emily to bring them back once the group passed into the Femoral Forest.

The forest itself is a sick, twisted thing. Black trunks grip the earth and greasy black leaves blow grotesquely in the wind. The floor of the forest is unsafe, the things that live in the underbrush terrifying and strange. This is a place where people go missing in an instant and insectoid monkeys would not be out of place. Memphis was born and raised here, and knows the safe paths, the ways to travel through the canopy high above, avoiding the worst of the dangers below. His people hunt boar here, following the herds and snatching them from above, living in hanging tents and tending their long, luscious hair. 

After hours of traveling through the branches of the trees, the party meets up with a member of Memphis' tribe, a cocky priss of an elf called Cecil. The two argue some, but agree that the group should meet with the Matriarch of the tribe, Cecil's mother, and Memphis' aunt. They travel to a healthier part of the forest, where elven magic keeps the trees healthy and whole, and try to learn the whereabouts of Babagya and her chicken-footed hut. The talks do not go well, with the party and the Matriarch at odds about nearly everything. Auntie suggests, forcefully, that they not be in her tents in the morning. One of the elven children whispers that she may know something about the woman they seek (but is sadly killed by Bruk's morning breath before she can say anything else).

They set off early, towards Babagya's last known location, the Spider Caves of Femur, near the border with the Basin Plains (pelvis, for the record, is the Latin word for "basin"). Here they are confronted by dark blue women who have spiders for heads and a small horde of spiders. These were stolen, part and parcel, from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station with the cosmetic change of spiders for scarabs. Scarabs are more alien, spiders are more metal. The spiders and their mates take the party to school, knocking every one of them out and dragging them back to their mountain lair to be fed to their breeders.

They awaken, fight off the guards sent to keep them, and rescue many other soon-to-be-meals. They manage to kill three of the spider-people breeders, fight off the eunuch guards, burn down the egg lair, kill many of the males, and discover that the Colossus of Femur is a huge, chrome phase spider. Now, they didn't do much of that, really. They fought the breeders, and saved the survivors, but the night was getting late, and we jumped straight into the boss battle. Babagya, in classic villain form, taunted the player characters some before fucking off to her chicken hut far below, and they were faced with a huge, scary, powerful, teleporting spider. It took for bloody ever (it's 2:50 in the morning as I write this), but they took the bastard down in good form. No one died. A few of them dropped unconscious, but got up the next round. It was good, but again a bit of a slog.

Some Notes:

One of the keys to being a good DM, in my opinion, is figuring out what you did right and what you did wrong. How things were good, and how they weren't means that next session you can do things better, make the game more fun for everyone. Below are my notes on where I think the session was solid and where it could have used some work.

• The colossi need work. They're okay, but they take too long to kill and they don't do enough damage that anyone is frightened of them. This one only did 1d8+5 damage per bite, with some status effects that ended on a save. Not good enough. The bosses need to be terrifying.
• We need to fight Babagya. Even if we don't win, we need to see the bitch in action and understand what we're up against. As she is, she's a sort of amorphous... thing. Also, I need to find a way to seperate her image from that of the flying Koopa Troopa that drops shells.
• Dealing with Memphis' family was a lot of fun. The first session lacked in the role-playing department. This one was better, but we could still use a bit more in each session. I've been too encounter-oriented so far.
• I need to plan stop-points, places where it would be a good place to stop for the night. I need to start planning for four to four-and-a-half hour sessions, even if we don't hit a boss.
• It's time to hit a city, I think. ^_^ 

The Most Metal Campaign of All Time

We ran through the first session of the Most Metal Campaign of All Time last night, and it went pretty okay. The start of the session was a little rough, which was entirely my own fault for not having a clearer idea of where the campaign started. I could well have started it a half hour later in the story, and everything would have been just fine. I'm running double experience on a four-person group, and we made it through four combat encounters and a skill challenge in the five hours we played. One of those encounters was a level five solo, so we managed to skip second level entirely. The solo encounter was mixed with a minor skill challenge (sort of), but it worked out. Next time, I think I'll handle the skills part of it a little differently.

We started out at the Library of Geth, a place built on the cliffs between Capp and the Fibular Wastelands. It is a fortress full of books, many of them very important or ridiculously powerful. The city-state of Sternum uses the Library as a repository for things like their census, tax records, and declarations of war. The drow from the Spine of the World use it to store their most important magical teachings. It has never, in its history, had a book stolen from it. Until yesterday.

The Library's guards are some of the best-trained soldiers in the world, but it is the opinion of the Archbishop that the retrieval of the book does not require soldiers; it requires bad-asses. The thief flew into the library, took the book, set some things on fire, killed a squad of guards with little difficulty and flew away. For this mission, the Archbishop requests audience with some of the biggest names in kicking ass. On any normal mission, one of these people would be enough. For this, they'll need to join forces, move past their differences, and learn to work together.

After beating some information out of the locals at a pub, they discover that the thief was apparently a woman in a cauldron, rowing her way through the air with a broom. She was heading south, across the Fibular Wasteland, which is where our heroes trek. Getting across the waste was a skill challenge in three parts. After the first few successes, the party met AkTakk, the leader of one of the many gnoll tribes in the area. After talking with the group (and a successful Diplomacy check, which was part of the Skill Challenge), AkTakk offered his aid to the group, sending the message along to other gnoll and kobold tribes in the area.

He informs them that he has seen the woman who flies in a cauldron before, and that she also owns a hut that walks on chicken legs, and that she has taken up residence in the southern Tarsil Mountains. This is the second time the group has heard about the chicken-hut, and it became something of a symbol for the session. ^_^ It should be noted that I basically stole Baba Yaga wholesale from Russian folklore. I think a witch who flies in a cauldron and eats babies is pretty fucking metal, so she's in.

It should be noted that I hate dragon-kobolds. In my game, they’re all dog-kobolds, and they are more closely related to gnolls than anything.

After a few failures, the group stumbled upon a group of undead gnolls and kobolds, and there was an altercation. It was a tough fight, as the kobold slingers had the high ground (they were situated on the tops of hoodoos; for those who did not grow up around Drumheller, a hoodoo is like a fucked-up backwards mountain; the big rocks are on the top, the little rocks are on the bottom. They make weird pillar things. They’re awesome. The ones in Drumheller are usually some ten feet tall). Our heroes handily won the fight, and were met by another tribe of gnolls who were coming to their aid; together, they made it to the base of the Tarsil Caves, a series of black volcanic caves that jut out from the southern edge of the waste.

The first cave shows signs of habitation, with bootprints and regularly walked paths. The heroes push further back into the caves, squeezing into a narrow choke-point and being met by a group of black-cloaked cultists armed to the teeth. I love humans as monsters, by the by. Their higher-than-average defences and their seeming habitual use of reach weapons can be devastating in a fight. This fight was particularly tough, of the four pre-boss fights; the choke point meant that only three of the characters were visible enough to hit, focusing enemy fire (I make a habit of spreading out my damage when I’m playing a story-based games. It makes the encounters tough, but not debilitating; I only go after a single character when they make me).

After dispatching the first of the Witch’s cultists, the party is confronted by the woman herself, and two of the undead gnolls she’s been keeping around. There’s a parley, from which the Witch leaves, mocking the party, to be replaced by her favourite surgeon, Scalpel. Scalpel got some basic healing powers, and kept buffing the undead up, which was fun to watch. I ran the buffs fast and loose, arbitrarily deciding that he would heal them to just above their bloodied point. The tactical decisions to be made (“Focus fire on the skeletons, or kill the healer? Oh god, they’re big and scary again...) were fun to watch from the position of an Evil God, and seeing them interact with Scalpel was a lot of fun. He was a bastard and I loved playing him.

The final encounter for the night was not, as suspected, against the Witch, but instead against the thing she has awakened with her new book. She taunts the party one more time before awakening the Colossus of Tarsil, a gargantuan creature of stone and flesh. The colossus was stolen part and parcel from Shadow of the Colossus, which is an amazing game for the PS2 should ever you get your hands on it. Basically, he’s immune to damage until you hit his weak spot. Each of the colossi in the game will have different weak spots, and each one will be activated by different skill checks. They managed to get this one turned off pretty quickly and start dishing out the damage, which didn’t take away from the fact that the fucker’s a level 5 solo and the group are all first level. The fight was tough, with burst effects that hit everyone on the map and 4d6 damage punches. I calmed down a little on the number of attacks, as they were down a player, and it was still a challenging fight, but I probably could have turned up the heat and it wouldn’t have gotten crazy. The next colossus will be harder. I hope to have at least two players drop into negatives from a boss fight.

There are some pictures of the boss-fight in action. JP will be e-mailing them to me soon. Also, I'll be talking a bit about some of the more interesting parts of the game a bit more in-depth later: the theme, the tone of the game in play, the skill challenge (and how I actually run them as opposed to how I write them), skill challenges in general, and why anyone would use a glow-in-the-dark My Little Cthulhu as a miniature.

The Store Game; Session Review

I'm currently involved in three Dungeons & Dragons games. I have my monthly Eberron game that Jeff DMs, the game JP is running set in a fantasy-alternate Edmonton, and the "store campaign," the one that I DM for my customers. The latter is bastard hybrid of 4th Edition and the Pathfinder Adventure paths. I love the Adventure Path storylines (sort of; more on that later), and the structure they give to my encounters, but I've found 4th Edition much better for pick-up games for a few reasons (I'll get into that later as well).

The Store Game is a strange hybrid of 4th Edition rules with the Paizo Pathfinder Adventure Path "Council of Thieves." The characters are all members of a shadowy organization called Dungeons & Dragons Inc, which is the mother-company of the Pathfinder organization found in the Adventure Path books (and the world information Paizo's put out for their D&D3.75 setting). They are "troubleshooters," hired guns, sent on missions paid for by a customer, or into areas in which the company has a vested interest. Sometimes, in the case of Westcrown, a mission meets both of those requirements.

The players are the members of Sierra Group. The most commonly recurring characters are Riccardo Longshaft, a young, hopeful druid with a heart of gold; Fireman Tim, a ranger with ADD and a halfingweed habit; and Arko, a dragonborn fighter who loves kicking down doors (quite literally, that seems to be his favorite part of the game thus far...). Other characters flit in and out depending on the session and who's playing. Because it's a game held for the store, there are a lot of characters who pop in for a session or two and then disappear for a few more, then come back. This is explained away by DDI requiring that particular character's services on a different mission, and teleporting them out. I imagine guys in sharp suits stepping out of portals, explaining that they need a particular character for a thing, and then zapping out as though nothing happened.

We've already pushed through the first book of Council of Thieves, "The Bastards of Erebus." They escaped the dreaded Death Knights into the sewers below the city, made friends with the revolutionaries in their abandoned church to a dead god, rescued the leader of the revolutionaries from certain death, and kicked the crap out of a group of bandits on the outskirts of town to try and drum up some popular support for their movement. All in all, a good couple of days.

When the characters returned from their adventure with the tiefling bandits, they were greeted at the church by the revolution's leader (Areal) and his right hand (Janiven), who introduce Ailen Ghontasavos, a representative of Dungeons & Dragons Inc, and one of Fireman Tim's ex-girlfriends. She asks them if they like "Opera."

That's where we ended off our last session. This session, we had a few new characters, whose names I cannot remember for the life of me. Alex was playing a defender of some sort; Angus played a dwarven shaman; Holly came in late with a human Avenger, who we decided was actually Ailen Ghontasavos herself. I didn't actually have a copy of The Sixfold Trial with me when I started planning out the night (I was given about two hours of planning time to make this happen, and the book was sold out at the store), so I made most of it up off the top of my head. I had a general idea about how the sessions was supposed to go, and I improvised on the details.

Basically, here's the mission as it's written in the book: Ailen wants to get into the old Pathfinder Lodge in the city because it's probably full of some pretty neat stuff. To get into it, though, she'll need a key that can only be found at the Lord Mayor's home. In the Lord Mayor's home is likely an answer to how to stop the Shadow Beasts that plague Westcrown's streets at night. Areal and Janiven are both of the opinion that it would be a Very Good Thing to make that happen. They suggest the following course of action: infiltrate the good Lord Mayor's home, find the key and whatever information you can find on Shadow Beasts, and then go poke around the Pathfinder Lodge for a while.

Ailen suggests that perhaps the best way to infiltrate the Lord Mayor's house is to abuse his love of bloody, violent Blood Opera. The Lord Mayor is particularly fond of this theater art, and will usually host a gala banquet for whoever survives the thing. This gets you into the house, free to "get lost looking for the bathroom." The plan is a solid one, and it's one that the Children of Westcrown (the revolutionaries) approve of. Ailen, Janiven and Areal put it to the players. My players mostly agreed.

This is where the Paizo publication and my own design went in different directions. Because I didn't have the book handy at the time, I decided to design the encounters from scratch. I broke the whole thing down into four key encounters, two skill-challenges and two combat encounters. The first Skill Challenge was to be the Audition, get the Director of the thing to like you. The first combat encounter would be on the way home from that, when a group of Death Knights stop the actors from getting home, as they match the description they've been given for the people who sprung Areal. The second Skill Challenge was the Play Itself, with the second combat encounter worked into the Skill Challenge for when they succeeded for failed. I decided halfway through the second combat encounter to continue the skill challenge.

The Audition:

Again, I didn't have the book sitting in front of me when I planned this out, so I decided that the Six Trials of Lazarod were the trials of a religious martyr, tortured and dragged into hell as an example of what good, clean living will get you. Keep in mind, Cheliax is run by a demon worshiping cult, so it makes sense that they would want to discourage acts of genuine Faith in the Good. To make this play happen, the Director needs a pretty specific group of people, which means auditions. Mostly, he isn't interested in any one person, he's looking for a troupe, a group of actors that will give the audience a hell of a show as they put the play on.

Level 4

Complexity: 3 (8 successes before 4 failures)

Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Insight

Secondary Skills: Acrobatics(1), Athletics(1), Perception(1), History(1)

Bluff: You read your script with faith and conviction, putting your all into making your character come alive on the stage. Failure on this skill check counts against the skill challenge, and the lead player takes a -2 on his or her next skill check.

Diplomacy: From years of practice, you speak clearly, you discuss the motivations of your character, build a strong case for your interpretations of his or her actions, and show that you have a deep understanding of who your character is. Failure on this skill check counts against the skill challenge, and the lead character takes a -2 of his or her next skill check.

Intimidate: You fill the room with your stage presence; even if your acting isn't necessarily up to snuff, your ability to command an audience's attention more than makes up for it. Failure on this skill check counts against the skill challenge, and the lead character takes a -2 on his or her next skill check.

Insight: Your keen understanding of people gives you a pretty clear idea of what the director wants to see. If you succeed at this skill check, you get a +2 bonus to your next skill check. Failing this skill check counts against the skill challenge, and the lead character takes a -4 on his or her next skill check.

Acrobatics (limit 1 success): It takes more than strong acting to make the Blood Opera work; they're more like a circus than a play, and your agility and grace ensure an entertaining performance on the night of the show. If you succeed on this skill check, you gain a +1 bonus to your next skill check. Failure on this skill check does not count against the skill challenge, but the lead character loses a healing surge and takes a -4 to his or her next skill check.

Athletics (limit 1 success): You need to be strong, powerful, toned to act in a Blood Opera, and with some showy flexing and a few feats of strength, you prove you've got what it takes to show off some muscle. If you succeed on this skill check, you gain a +1 bonus to your next skill check. Failure on this skill check does not count against the skill challenge, but the lead character loses two healing surges, and takes a -4 penalty on his or her next skill check.

Perception (limit 1 success): You notice the director is paying special attention to one of your cast-mates; now is your chance to knock him or her out of the spotlight! If you succeed on this check, you may pick an ally involved in the challenge; that ally loses two healing surges, but gains a +4 bonus to his or her next skill check. Failure on this skill check does not count against the skill challenge, but the lead character loses all of his or her healing surges and is removed from the challenge (you have sprained an ankle falling down a trap door while trying to sabotage your co-stars).

History (limit 1 success): You know which parts are traditionally played by what sorts of people, allowing you to peg the role you're most interested in. If you succeed in this skill check, you gain a +2 bonus to all of your skill checks for the rest of the skill challenge. Failure on this skill check does not count against the skill challenge, but you will take a cumulative -2 to each skill check for the rest of the skill challenge (your first attempt is at a -2 penalty, the next is at a -4 penalty, the next is at -6 and so on).

Development:

Success: You have made it! You and your troupe are the next stars of the Sixfold Trials of Lazarod!

Failure: You're pretty good, don't get me wrong, but I simply cannot put you ahead of some of the most incredible talent Westcrown has ever seen. You will be understudies to them, yes? Should something unfortunate happen to our main cast, you will be the ones to replace them. (if they wish to kill the people they are understudying, use the characters in the second combat encounter).

The Walk Home

Once the players are cast as either the main players or the understudies for the play, they're free to go home, get some rest, and spend a couple of days rehearsing the play. In the back of the book, there's an actual script you could use to play this out, spend a few minutes badly reciting lines from the play (which would be a ton of fun, and I wish I had the book when I did the game, now). Before they can sit back and start memorizing lines, though, they meet up with a Death Knight patrol that has been on the lookout for them. After all, these are the punks that busted a dangerous felon out of jail. They need to pay something fierce.

The Death Knight Initiates are mostly there for flavor. They're not incredible, they died quickly in my own session, but they made good fodder to take attention away from the acolyte. I had one minion for each player, and one Acolyte. They fought in a pretty nondescript alley, and I will NOT be making a map for it. In fact, there will be no maps today. Fuck maps.

Death Knight Acolyte		Level 4 Elite Soldier
Medium natural humanoid		XP 350
Initiative +6 Senses Perception +3 HP 112; Bloodied 56 AC 20; Fortitude 17; Reflex 16; Will 15 Saving Throws +2 Speed 5 Action Points 1
m Longsword (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+11 vs AC; 1d8 + 6 damage, and the target is marked until the end of the knight's next turn
r Dagger (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 5/10; +9 vs AC; 1d4 + 6 damage
M Stealthy Smite (standard; must have combat advantage against target; recharge 5 6)
+11 vs AC; 1d8 + 10 damage, and the target falls prone
Punitive Radiance (free, when the knight hits with a melee attack; encounter)
The attack deals 1d6 extra radiant damage, and the target grants combat advantage until the end of the knight's next turn.
Knight's Shove (immediate interrupt, when a creature marked by the knight shifts; at-will)
The knight makes a longsword attack against the triggering creature. If it hits, the target falls prone.
Alignment Unaligned		Languages Common
Str 17 (+5)	Dex 15 (+4)		Wis 12 (+3)
Con 16 (+5)	Int 11 (+2)		Cha 13 (+3)
Equipment Plate Armor, Light Shield, Longsword, Dagger x2
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.

Death Knight Initiate		Level 3 Minion Soldier
Medium natural humanoid		XP 38
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +1 HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. AC 19; Fortitude 16; Reflex 15; Will 14 Speed 5
m Longsword (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+10 vs AC; 9 damage, and the target is marked until the end of the knight's next turn
r Dagger (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 5/10; +8 vs AC; 13 damage
M Stealthy Smite (standard; must have combat advantage against target; recharge 5 6)
+10 vs AC; 1d8 + 9 damage, and the target falls prone
Punitive Radiance (free, when the knight hits with a melee attack; encounter)
The attack deals 1d6 extra radiant damage, and the target grants combat advantage until the end of the knight's next turn.
Knight's Shove (immediate interrupt, when a creature marked by the knight shifts; at-will)
The knight makes a longsword attack against the triggering creature. If it hits, the target falls prone.
Alignment Unaligned		Languages Common
Str 16 (+4)	Dex 14 (+3)		Wis 11 (+1)
Con 15 (+3)	Int 10 (+1)		Cha 12 (+2)
Equipment Plate Armor, Light Shield, Longsword, Dagger x2
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.

Opening Night

This challenge is all about the play itself. Whoever was cast as Lazarod is going to have a tough time of it. In the published adventure, there are a number of roles to play, and each role has a pretty well-defined character. Me, I went for a more abstract idea of what the play would look like. One player is Lazarod (in this case, Fireman Tim), two players are Executioners (Aelin and whoever Alex was playing), one player played the Demon (Arko) and two of the players were crew, using Arcana to make some special effects that didn't suck. In my original plan, Arcana didn't show up at all, but it ended up being used a few times. So too did Nature, though I didn't include it in the Challenge at all. I've included them here because they worked pretty well in practice.

Level 4

Difficulty 2 (6 successes before 3 failures)

Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Endurance (Lazarod), Insight

Secondary Skills: Arcana, Acrobatics, Athletics, Nature

Bluff: You deliver your lines pitch-perfect, and the crowd loves your interpretation of your character. Failure at this skill check counts against the Skill Challenge, and the main player loses a healing surge; add one minion to the Combat Encounter.

Diplomacy: The audience can see your vision, understanding the depth and drama you've imbued your character. Failure at this skill check counts against the Skill Challenge; the main character and the character playing Lazarod each lose two healing surges; add one minion to the Combat Encounter.

Intimidate: Your forceful stage presence can be felt all the way to the balconies. You own the room, and they love you for it. Failure at this skill check counts against the Skill Challenge; the main character and the character playing Lazarod each lose one healing surge; add one minion to the Combat Encounter.

Endurance (Lazarod Only): You withstand the many tortures set against you; though you are being slowly tortured, you think to death, your mind stays sharp and clear. Gain a healing surge. Failure on this skill check does not count against the Skill Challenge, but you lose two healing surges and take a -4 penalty to your next skill check.

Insight: You look out into the crowd and gauge their response (if the players are currently ahead in the Skill Challenge, the audience is with them; if they're behind, the audience is against them) and you can tell that they are eager for more. The player of your choice gets a +4 bonus to his or her next skill check. Failure on this skill check counts against the Skill Challenge, and both the main character and the character playing Lazarod lose a healing surge.

Arcana (limit 2 successes): You use your knowledge of magic to summon small special effects that add to the experience. A small fire catches, or a person glows with power as they speak. Choose a player. That player gains a +4 bonus to their next skill check. Failure on this skill check does not count against the Skill Challenge, but both the main character and the character that would have received the benefit of this success lose a healing surge (they catch on fire).

Acrobatics (limit 1 success): You spin and whirl across the stage, slicing into Lazarod's flesh and spraying the audience with an arc of blood. Lazarod loses 4 hit points, but gains a healing surge. Failure on this skill check does not count against the Skill Challenge, but Lazarod instead loses 10 hit points and a healing surge, and the main character loses two healing surges.

Athletics (limit 1 success): You lift Lazarod above your head with a single hand, tossing his body onto the ground like a rag doll. It looks impressive, but it's almost entirely harmless. Pick a player. That player gets a +2 bonus to his or her next Bluff check. Failure on this skill check does not count against the Skill Challenge, but both the main character and the character playing Lazarod lose a healing surge.

Nature (limit 1 success): You light the Fires of Hell behind the door frames that lead to the play's Hell. It's not dangerous, but it certainly looks impressive. Pick a player. That player gets a +2 bonus on his or her next intimidate check. Failure on this skill check does not count against the Skill Challenge, but both the main character and the character that would be been the recipient of the bonus lose a healing surge and begin the next combat encounter with ongoing 5 fire damage.

After Some Failures

If and when the players accrue a few failures on the skill challenge, pause the challenge and initiate the second combat encounter. The character's understudies have come to add a little spice to the show, something of a tradition for the Sixfold Trials. For each of the failures, add a minion or two to the encounter. There really isn't any rhyme or reason to how the actors will fight; while they're quite competent fighters, each in their own way, they are primarily actors and will act like divas given half the chance.

Kobold Rat Master		Level 4 Elite Soldier
Small natural humanoid		XP 350
Initiative +6 Senses Perception +3; darkvision Rat Horde aura 1; each enemy that begins its turns within the aura takes 5 damage. Enemies treat squares in the aura as difficult terrain. See also devouring horde. HP 114; Bloodied 57 AC 20; Fortitude 18; Reflex 17; Will 16 Speed 6
m Whip (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Reach 2; +11 vs AC; 1d4 + 2 damage, and the target is pulled 1 square
C Gnawing Rats (standard; at-will)
Close burst 2; +9 vs Fortitude; 1d6 + 2 damage and ongoing 5 damage (save ends). See also devouring horde
R Devouring Horde (standard; encounter)
Ranged 5; +9 vs Fortitude; 1d6 + 3 damage, and the target is stunned (save ends); until the target saves, the rat master loses its rat horde aura and the use of its gnawing rats attack
C Rat Frenzy (standard; encounter)
Close burst 1; +9 vs Reflex; 2d6 + 3 damage
Shifty (minor; at-will)
A kobold can shift 1 square as a minor action.
Trap Sense
A kobold gains a +2 bonus to all defenses against traps.
Alignment Evil		Languages Draconic
Skills Nature +8
Str 14 (+4)	Dex 15 (+4)		Wis 12 (+3)
Con 17 (+5)	Int 12 (+3)		Cha 13 (+3)
Monster found in Dragon Magazine Annual 2009 and Compendium
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
Reniss, Half-Elf Ranger		Level 4 Artillery
Medium natural humanoid		XP 175
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +2; low-light vision HP 47; Bloodied 23 AC 18; Fortitude 18; Reflex 19; Will 15 Speed 6
m Longsword (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+12 vs AC; 1d8 + 2 damage
r Longbow (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 20/40; +13 vs AC; 1d10 + 3 damage
R Eyebite (standard; encounter) • Arcane, Charm, Implement, Psychic
Ranged 10; +9 vs Will; 1d6 + 1 psychic damage, and Reniss is invisible to the target until the start of her next turn
R Hunter's Bear Trap (standard; daily) • Martial, Weapon
Requires longbow; +13 vs AC; 2d10 + 3 damage, and the target is slowed and takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends)
R Nimble Strike (standard; at-will) • Martial, Weapon
Requires longbow; +13 vs AC; 1d10 + 3 damage; Reniss can shift 1 square before or after she attacks
R Shadow Wasp Strike (standard; encounter) • Martial, Weapon
Requires longbow; target quarry; +13 vs AC; 2d10 + 3 damage
Hunter's Quarry
Once per turn as a minor action, Reniss can designate the enemy nearest to her as her quarry. Once per round, Reniss deals 1d6 extra damage on an attack made against her quarry.
Unbalancing Parry (immediate reaction, when an enemy misses reniss with a melee attack; encounter)
Reniss slides the enemy into a square adjacent to her and gains combat advantage against it until the end of her next turn.
Group Diplomacy
Reniss grants allies within 10 squares of her a +1 racial bonus to Diplomacy checks.
Alignment Good		Languages Common, Elven, Dwarven
Skills Acrobatics +10, Diplomacy +5, Dungeoneering +5
Str 15 (+4)	Dex 17 (+5)		Wis 10 (+2)
Con 15 (+4)	Int 12 (+3)		Cha 13 (+3)
Equipment Leather Armor, Longsword, Longbow, Arrows (30)
Monster found in Dungeon Magazine 158 and Compendium
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
Lady of Shadows		Level 4 Skirmisher
Small natural humanoid		XP 175
Initiative +8 Senses Perception +4; darkvision HP 54; Bloodied 27 AC 18; Fortitude 15; Reflex 17; Will 15 Speed 6
m Dagger (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+6 vs AC; 1d4 + 4 damage
R Dagger (standard; encounter) • Weapon
Ranged 5/10; +6 vs AC; 1d4 + 4 damage
C Killing Dark (when reduced to 0 hit points)
Close burst 1, targets enemies; the Lady of Shadows explodes in a spout of darkness; each target is blinded (save ends).
Combat Advantage
The Lady deals an extra 1d6 damage on melee and ranged attacks against any target she has combat advantage against.
Dark Step (move; at-will)
The Lady moves up to 4 squares, gains a +4 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks, and gains combat advantage against any target that she ends her move adjacent to.
Alignment Evil		Languages Common
Skills Stealth +11, Thievery +11
Str 11 (+2)	Dex 18 (+6)		Wis 14 (+4)
Con 14 (+4)	Int 13 (+3)		Cha 13 (+3)
Equipment Dagger x5
Monster found in Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and Compendium
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.
Chevkos's Lackey		Level 4 Minion Skirmisher
Medium natural humanoid		XP 44
Initiative +4 Senses Perception +3 HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion. AC 18; Fortitude 18; Reflex 15; Will 16 Speed 6
m Short Sword (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+9 vs AC; 5 damage
r Hand Crossbow (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Ranged 10/20; +9 vs AC; 4 damage
Combat Advantage
A lackey deals 2 extra damage against any creature granting combat advantage to it.
Alignment Unaligned		Languages Common
Skills Stealth +7
Str 16 (+5)	Dex 11 (+2)		Wis 12 (+3)
Con 14 (+4)	Int 10 (+2)		Cha 13 (+3)
Equipment Leather Armor, Short sword, Hand Crossbow, Crossbow Bolts (20)
Monster found in Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons and Compendium
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This monster statistics block has been generated using the D&D Adventure Tools.

Development

Success: You have produced the most successful version of the Sixfold Trials of Lazarod the city of Westcrown has seen in over a decade. Overnight, you have become actors of some renown in the city, and people can't wait for you next show. The mayor is holding a gala for you (tonight!) to congratulate you.

Failure: Though the play was a total ruin, it was amusing to all the right people. The mayor has deemed this the most entertaining satire of the Sixfold Trials he's ever seen, and invites the surviving cast and crew to a small get-together at his home.

Fireman Tim, playing Lazarod, nearly died before they finished the challenge and got invited to the Mayor's for dinner. The challenge was actually pretty intense, to the point where people got up and cheered when they won, and fist-bumps were awarded all around. I consider any encounter that ends with people screaming in happiness a success.

It was a really great session, I really enjoyed DMing it, and I hope the next part of the adventure (infiltrating the Mayor's home) will be half as much fun.