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jcfialaThe campaign continues along at a fine pace.
Having discovered the secret staircase descending to the hidden (and abandoned) gnome city of Jzadirune (apparently named by someone who had a cold that month :), they got in order and descended into the hidden depths, cracking a few sun rods for light. Although three of the characters are elves, they still need *some* light to get by with, after all.
Arriving in the first room, they discovered that one of the odd, round-gear-like doors was cracked open, with light coming from inside. Entering, they found themselves attacked by a pair of Skulks, strange humanoids who are able to hide really, really well. The skulks attempted to escape to warn their friends, but a few quick hits by weapons, and the Druid's very smart wolf, and instead the skulks decided to take up bleeding.
Soon, the group learned a few things.
That learned, they started to explore, finding a large meeting room with strange lights floating by the ceiling. The lights were harmless, but when the martial artist went too far into the room, he found himself ambushed by two of the skulks, a dicey thing when you've got eight hit points or so. However, everyone worked together very well at taking out the two humanoids, and soon after that they decided to follow a hallway to see which way it would go.
They found more doors they couldn't open, although the knife-thrower, Nixie, kept track of the letters on the doors for later. Following through they found an old, web-choked bathroom, which was nice enough until the spiders attacked. After a few blows (and a few happily made fortitude checks vs. poison), the spiders were defeated, and they gathered up a few gemstones, one of which was magical and would float around your head if you let it. (My players were a little disconcerted when I asked them for a fortitude save when they let loose the ioun stone, and decided to set it aside. Luckily for them, they'd made the save.)
After the spiders they found a mostly useless storage room that was accessible via a secret door that the skulks hadn't found - a few useful mundane items (like rope and candles), but what was really useful was that they realized that this would make a great place to rest without chance of being surprised.
They explored their way back to the big room with the lights, and then hit the tunnels again, coming out into a strange room that had illusions set up to make it look like they were outside, in a forest. Rose, the Druid, really liked the room, although she grew less fond of it as she realized it was all fake. Further exploration caused them to find a dining area, and then further on (after more tunnels) a kitchen, where they found themselves under attack by a new foe - a short humanoid wrapped in shadows. Having survived that, they decided to break for the day.
From an OOC standpoint, I'm pretty happy with how things went. I let them go up a level after the second battle - their XP was over the 1000 xp threshold for level 2, and I thought that the extra XP and battleworthiness would help them out against what tend to be tricky battles. Jokes were made about videogame leveling up, but it worked out nicely. My wife, playing Rose, managed to roll a 1 for hit points, talked me into letting her have a re-roll, and then rolled a 1 again. At the same time Amy, playing a Warlock with a long name, managed to roll maximum hit points.
My players are growing a little frustrated with all of the doors they can't go through, because they don't have the appropriate keys, and the DC of the locks (30) is far too high for the rogue (Open Locks +8) to open. I need to go through and list for myself where the keys are, so I can make sure when they're near one to nudge them towards it.
I screwed up the final combat a little - I didn't have the ambushers in the right place in the room. But that's fine - it was close to 10pm and it was time to go.
This entire session I used the Wizards of the Coast Dungeon Tiles to map out rooms as they went through them, and both my players and I were very happy with how it worked out. I had my fold-up map sheet underneath, which helped with sketching where the tunnels entered a room, as well.
As I read through the campaign book, I'm growing more and more impressed by how well this hangs together.
Having discovered the secret staircase descending to the hidden (and abandoned) gnome city of Jzadirune (apparently named by someone who had a cold that month :), they got in order and descended into the hidden depths, cracking a few sun rods for light. Although three of the characters are elves, they still need *some* light to get by with, after all.
Arriving in the first room, they discovered that one of the odd, round-gear-like doors was cracked open, with light coming from inside. Entering, they found themselves attacked by a pair of Skulks, strange humanoids who are able to hide really, really well. The skulks attempted to escape to warn their friends, but a few quick hits by weapons, and the Druid's very smart wolf, and instead the skulks decided to take up bleeding.
Soon, the group learned a few things.
- You can't unlock these wierd doors without a key, or at least a higher-level rogue.
- The doors have letters in runic Gnomish on them.
- The skulks must not have been able to open them either, as they've dug tunnels through the rock to connect various rooms.
That learned, they started to explore, finding a large meeting room with strange lights floating by the ceiling. The lights were harmless, but when the martial artist went too far into the room, he found himself ambushed by two of the skulks, a dicey thing when you've got eight hit points or so. However, everyone worked together very well at taking out the two humanoids, and soon after that they decided to follow a hallway to see which way it would go.
They found more doors they couldn't open, although the knife-thrower, Nixie, kept track of the letters on the doors for later. Following through they found an old, web-choked bathroom, which was nice enough until the spiders attacked. After a few blows (and a few happily made fortitude checks vs. poison), the spiders were defeated, and they gathered up a few gemstones, one of which was magical and would float around your head if you let it. (My players were a little disconcerted when I asked them for a fortitude save when they let loose the ioun stone, and decided to set it aside. Luckily for them, they'd made the save.)
After the spiders they found a mostly useless storage room that was accessible via a secret door that the skulks hadn't found - a few useful mundane items (like rope and candles), but what was really useful was that they realized that this would make a great place to rest without chance of being surprised.
They explored their way back to the big room with the lights, and then hit the tunnels again, coming out into a strange room that had illusions set up to make it look like they were outside, in a forest. Rose, the Druid, really liked the room, although she grew less fond of it as she realized it was all fake. Further exploration caused them to find a dining area, and then further on (after more tunnels) a kitchen, where they found themselves under attack by a new foe - a short humanoid wrapped in shadows. Having survived that, they decided to break for the day.
From an OOC standpoint, I'm pretty happy with how things went. I let them go up a level after the second battle - their XP was over the 1000 xp threshold for level 2, and I thought that the extra XP and battleworthiness would help them out against what tend to be tricky battles. Jokes were made about videogame leveling up, but it worked out nicely. My wife, playing Rose, managed to roll a 1 for hit points, talked me into letting her have a re-roll, and then rolled a 1 again. At the same time Amy, playing a Warlock with a long name, managed to roll maximum hit points.
My players are growing a little frustrated with all of the doors they can't go through, because they don't have the appropriate keys, and the DC of the locks (30) is far too high for the rogue (Open Locks +8) to open. I need to go through and list for myself where the keys are, so I can make sure when they're near one to nudge them towards it.
I screwed up the final combat a little - I didn't have the ambushers in the right place in the room. But that's fine - it was close to 10pm and it was time to go.
This entire session I used the Wizards of the Coast Dungeon Tiles to map out rooms as they went through them, and both my players and I were very happy with how it worked out. I had my fold-up map sheet underneath, which helped with sketching where the tunnels entered a room, as well.
As I read through the campaign book, I'm growing more and more impressed by how well this hangs together.
