D&D Monday

"Gelatinous Cube, party of two!"

My D&D group just hacked and slashed their way to level 5 Sunday afternoon.  The players themselves have really gelled as a group, but their characters in many senses are still establishing themselves.  Especially the "veteran" of the group, who has switched classes and races several times before settling on the goliath barbarian Lokag.

From the beginning, I have told the members of the group (most of whom are playing 4E for the first time) to not worry about retraining or remaking their character if they find themselves at a point where they aren't having fun anymore, or with a bad combination of abilities that haven't worked the way they wanted.  Out of the new players the warlock has changed the most, switching from a fey pact to a melee-based Essentials hexblade before switching back when the veteran decided he wanted to play a melee character too.

But now, after going an entire level without making a major change, the barbarian wants to switch to a controller.  A while ago I would have been thrilled, because this now gives the party one person in each party role, but I just hope it's the last time he wants to completely reformat his character.  I can't even figure out what loot to award him week to week!



The Elven Massacre


The weekend's game finished out the 4th-level quest the party picked up while leaving the town of Falcrest.  They had intended to go looking for the town's "mad alchemist" so they could coax him into making some bombs for them to fight the local thieves guild with, but they were sidetracked by a group of human farmers nursing many wounds and burns while they limped their way toward the city.

I had twenty pages of wizard's tower ready to go, and they threw it out the window because of a few battered peasants with a sob story about how they were massacred by savage elves.  I honestly should have seen it coming, but I've always been the kind of DM that gets into trouble when they start spinning a story.

"As you approach the farmers, one draws a rusted sword and threatens you with it, albeit shakily.  He shouts, 'Don't come any closer or we'll send ye straight to the Nine Hells!'"

"Well, I'm a dragonborn," said the 14-year-old paladin, "and he's a goliath, so I'm sure they're just scared of us because they're puny, weak humans."

"They're actually pointing the sword at him," I said, nodding toward the party's craven, non-threatening eladrin warlock.

They all looked at each other for a moment, then said "Huh?"

Into the Woods


That led them to investigate the massacre of the farms, which led them to being captured by the wild, somewhat-xenophobic tribe of elves that lived in the nearby forest.  The players were put on trial where they (and by extension, the farmers) were blamed for killing several elven patrols.  The players defend their actions, and are placed into a dream state where their spirits live through the massacre at the farmhold.

This is a place where I tried to apply the "Bioware" method of storytelling:  one storyline with a definite outcome, but with different ways and "moods" of completing it.  If the players had been more aggressive to the elves, they would have been blamed for the deaths and forced to undertake the spirit quest as a punishment.  They would have found the true threat, a necromancer who raised the murdered elves and sent them against the farmers, but the remaining elves would have just thrown them out instead of offering to help them.  By being diplomatic they instead made an ally of the elves, which will have more ramifications later in the campaign when the players need to raise an army.

Fort Kazgoth

The players go hunt down the necromancer in a ruined tiefling fort deep in the woods; it had been turned into a goblin warren, and the necromancer used them as slaves and food for the vampire spawn it had brought with it.  After the twisting story with the elves, the players enjoyed having a straightforward enemy to hunt down and terminate with extreme prejudice.

The final fights were a real test of their endurance:  one big combat with regenerating vampires and a skills challenge to rescue an elven spirit, then a boss fight that had wraiths and phantoms harrying the players while they struggled to break through a shield protecting the necromancer.  There was also a timed element, because the necromancer was completing a ritual that would drive the elves of the forest insane.  Each round I counted down a timer hidden behind the screen, and the players would groan every time a round went by and they didn't break the shield.

Next weekend will be time for the denouement and the beginning of their next quest, which is a choice entirely up to them.  I'm curious whether they'll actually go back to find out what happened to that mad alchemist, or if they'll feel obligated to continue repairing relations between the elves and the farmers.  And just why did that necromancer want the two groups to be at each others' throats anyway...