In Week 4, the vikings busted in on the study of a goblin warcaster. After he was knocked into a pit and missiled to death, the crew ransacked his study and found his journal. After Week 6, we finally took a rest, and Bartix (with his Comprehend Languages still in effect) finally got a chance to sit down and read it. The following are the most relevant excerpts:
36:
We just returned from the raid, and there are now more of the Pus Hogs than there are of us. Another misstep by Grimmur, who thankfully will never decode this! And where's our loot? We ended up carrying so much of our wounded that we had no food, no metal, no slaves... and the Hogs will want revenge. Some of the few we did kill was their chief's two sons.
I'll be gone in two days... either with my tribe or without it.
41:
We have been in the Underwilds for four days now. Grimmur has made the first good decision in a wyrm's age to flea instead of staying. But where are we going to go now? Grimmur says he has a map for me to decode, something he stole long ago and was saving as a last-ditch effort. He says it shows some forgotten passage leading to a Norse island long abandoned. I think I am through the cryptics, but this map must be hundreds of years old, and the caverns change every year. And what happens when the Norse island is full of Norsemen?
53:
We made it! We are half starved from lean tunnel-hunting, but the map led us to a doorway in the upper tunnels. Grimmur chanted something to open the door, then stood back and let Burcha and Fastur go out first, Orcus save them. I peered around his waist to watch, and saw the ground glittering with treasure! There were six, possibly seven skeletons, too big to be goblins, and clad in shining armor! The two fools leapt at the treasure, trying to work the armor free. I struggled to join them, but Grimmur held us all back at the doorway. Then ghostly forms descended from somewhere, leaping on them, tearing them apart! Grimmur broke through the doorway, yelling at us to run for our lives! The warband made it up and out of the pit while the specters were distracted, but that treasure was left untouched.
I have to admit, Grimmur was right about this island. The place is deserted, including a very livable cave, and has been for decades. The boys found some very edible meat above ground and some Under-quality blooms below. We might make it here.
54:
The room near the cave mouth is off-limits. I hear Malker wandered in this morning and the door shut immediately after him. I hurried across the island to see and made it just in time to see the door open again. Malker was nowhere to be seen, although the floor was smeared with blood. I threw in a torch and caught the glitter of polished steel, so perhaps Grimmur will organize an assault on the room. Could this be related to the specters at the pit floor? Regardless, we can make our way around the room by taking back passages.
57:
I woke last night as Grimmur shook me violently, telling me to do nothing until the curse was lifted. I plead with him that I would do nothing else, and he dropped me to the cave ground and stalked off, his leg dragging behind.
Grimmur never came out of his crypt today. That's for the best: ever since he read the stone, his speech has been impossible to understand. He cannot intimidate, he cannot lead, if he talks like he has an axe in his skull. We both agree that he has been cursed.
We found the stone he read wrenched from the ground today, with tracks leading to his crypt. Now none of us will fall under the curse. I wonder what Grimmur needs the stone for. I think I can work without it.
Life is good here on the island. I eat fish from the caves and deer from the woods. Most of the caves are safe, and we all have more room than the Underdark ever offered.
72:
I went to see Grimmur to get a rubbing of his stone for study. The stench from his crypt was overpowering, he hadn't moved in days. He sat staring at the stone, intoning the human syllables over and over again. He growled at me as I entered, and I think the curse saved me from being attacked. I backed out and returned to my quarters. I think I have this Balder stone decrypted. I set Tolfa to bring the Ygdrassil stone back to me, and I think this will bring it all together.
73:
Where the hell is my stone? I would rather die of freezing Odin breath or whatever those idiots think is happening with the stone than by being eaten by Grimmur.
I have some ideas of getting through that pit and past the ghosts, but I would need the help of at least ten goblins. And that would not get us through the door. I believe it is still sealed without the chant Grimmur has. We are all doomed to die on this island.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Isle of Fury part 6
Last night we played Part 6 of the Isle of Fury! We've settled into a solid "one giant encounter per night" model, and it seems to be working pretty well. It makes a dungeon last months, but it does result in a satisfying gaming session.
We opened with the room stretched out before the Vikings. They crept up to a doorway, but found themselves discovered and prepared for. In a giant room stood an altar to Thor Odinson, god of thunder! But it was inhabited by goblins, including an axe-wielding berserker. Four archers had set themselves up on the raised portion of the altar, ready to pepper adventurers with bolts. Behind each archer was an assistant: a minion aiding the sharpshooters to give them +2s to hit.
They were led by a Elite Savage Berserker Skullspliter goblin, who enraged the vikings by humping the Thor statue. That can't stand!
Hermiad took the first action by firing his longbow at the Berserker, hitting and doing some decent damage. Then everyone rolled initiative. The goblins took the low end of the order, allowing Bartix, Rurik, and Hermiad to get more missile fire in. This Berserker was being taken down fast, but he needed to draw them into the range of his archer support.
The archers triggered their obvious trap (that everyone tried, unsuccessfully, to detect) by firing flaming arrows at charges in the ceiling. Two rockslide traps sprung on Hermiad, Rurik, and Varin, doing some minor damage. The other two fired directly at the adventurers with minor success. Next the Berserker leapt from the altar and charged Hermiad, whacking for 8 or so.
Mendas and Rurik responded to the Berserker, bloodying him. But this played into his hand: his damage output doubled, and he started responding to melee attacks with another attack! He may have done 50 damage in a round, including 25 to Rurik with a maxed damage roll. Bartix magic-missiled him, and Hermiad shifted away to nearly finish him with a longbow. With only one hit point left, Edgar did the honors.
Oddny, Edgar, and Rurik moved up to the altar to take out the archers.
Meanwhile, Bartix had heard sounds echoing through the dungeon. He could still understand Goblish, so he could understand them saying, "We've got them now, boys! We're the last chance!" Bartix positioned himself by the door, and readied his spells. Meanwhile Hermiad and Mendas set themselves up on the other side, ready to capitalize. Rurik used his Knight's Move to help Mendas get in position, which was cool.
The goblins charged in: five Skullcleavers and one Warcaster. Bartix let them into the room and released a Freezing Cloud. Three of them went down. Bartix them spent an action point and pulled a Thunderwave, sending another group of three back into the Ranger-Rogue blender (I think only one guy was iced and thundered). This generated four attacks of opportunity, killing the Warcaster and wounding the others. Ah, my warcaster!
Well, he had had another job besides casting spells or whatever, he was supposed to throw a snake! From his corpse, a small snake slithered from a bag on his belt. Once released, it instantly grew into a Deathrattle Viper which now threatened Hermiad!
Meanwhile two remaining untouched Skullsplitters went after Bartix. One rolled low, the other did serious damage. Everybody in the back of the room needed help. A fifth Skullsplitter escaped into the middle of the room, charging Varin!
Bartix was in the most trouble, as he couldn't take the heat he was facing. Rurik left the archer he was facing and shot across the battlefield in an action-point-fueled blur, charging one and hitting. These guys were pretty easy to hit, AC and all other defenses around 16, but they could dish out damage on par with the toughest PCs. As the goblins responded to the hits, Rurik was overwhelmed and fell down, at -3 hit points!
Oddny killed her archer but left the minion behind, crossing the battlefield to aid Rurik. Bartix kept backing up and firing, but he was threatened. Meanwhile, Hermiad and Mendas locked up the snake. This monster was hard to hit, but was cursed with terrible luck. I realized at some point that it was bloodied but that I had no idea what his attack power was, because he had yet to hit! With combat advantage established, the snake went down, and the two strikers went on to help with the remaining Skullsplitters.
Oddny switched from Medic to Hacker/Slasher, and Edgar killed the last of the goblin archers. The warforged then crossed the room to engage the Skullsplitters. Bartix was severly injured tried to gain some distance from the fray and used Expeditious Retreat to move back to the front of the room, apparently safe. But now the heavy fighters had ignored the goblin minions. A good tactical choice, but the wizard and the warlock were somewhat vulnerable. A minion charged Bartix, hit, and killed him! I informed Zach that this was the weakest enemy in the game, and for shame. Varin cleared the minion off the fallen wizard, and Oddny helped get him stable.
With multiple fighters and combat advantage aplenty, the goblins were falling fast. Mendas was sneak-attacking every which way, and Hermiad benefitted from his third crit of the night. At last, the only enemy left standing was one goblin minion, still rooted in fear at his original spot on the altar. Everyone's eyes fell on him, and he pleaded fervently for his life! Unfortunately, he was standing right next to a statue of Thor, who doesn't go in for that shit at all. What killed him, an arrow, a Dire Radiance, a Magic Missile? I can't quite remember; point is, dude is dead.
The vikings collapsed from the epic battle that had seen two characters below zero hit points and hundreds of points of damage dealt out. They had gone into it knowing that this was the last act of the adventuring day, and most of them had spend all remaining powers. A quick search of the room found some healing potions, gold, and a suit of Sylvan Leather Armor on one of the Skullspliters. Most interesting, however, was the inscription on the base of the Thor statue:
Everyone's religion and arcana rolls indicated that the words were incongruent with Thor, and that the shrine was magical in some way. Bartix studied the inscription closely and noticed that a letter came away with his finger and dragged across the surface of the stone. Everyone realized that this was an anagram puzzle, and sat down to figure it out. "THOR" was easy to find, but the rest took some doing. Finally, Mendas intoned "Armory of Thor!"
The stone split and opened, leading to a small room underneath the statue. Here everyone found cool stuff!
The vikings barricaded the room with loose rocks and bedded down for the night. There had been five encounters in the day, four of them combined into two encounters, so it was pretty tough day. For dinner? Roast snake!
All through the night the dungeon was silent. As far as anyone could tell, the goblin threat had been depopulated. In the morning the crew cleared the doorway and set out. They immediately came to a great opening to the north of the shrine. The pit was easily 90 feet across and fifty feet deep. A footpath traced the exterior, spiraling down to a small platform. Lighting the pit with spells revealed a doorway, along with several corpses. The adventurers could see two goblin bodies along with some ancient armored humanoid skeletons. This armor gleamed despite its age, perhaps it was magic! In the DM game, that's what we call Baiting the Hook.
Speaking of baits and hooks, Mendas volunteered to descend into the pit, secured by a line to Edgar. He carefully transversed the footpath with Edgar following above, ready to yank him up at any moment. When suddenly...
Casualties:
1 Elite Savage Berserker Goblin Skullplitter
4 Goblin Sharpshooters
4 Goblin Minions
5 Goblin Skullsplitters
1 Elite Frostborn Goblin Warcaster
1 Deathrattle Viper
24 beers! A new record for the campaign! Celebrating drunkenness is crass and at least eight years behind me, but USA! USA!
We opened with the room stretched out before the Vikings. They crept up to a doorway, but found themselves discovered and prepared for. In a giant room stood an altar to Thor Odinson, god of thunder! But it was inhabited by goblins, including an axe-wielding berserker. Four archers had set themselves up on the raised portion of the altar, ready to pepper adventurers with bolts. Behind each archer was an assistant: a minion aiding the sharpshooters to give them +2s to hit.
They were led by a Elite Savage Berserker Skullspliter goblin, who enraged the vikings by humping the Thor statue. That can't stand!
Hermiad took the first action by firing his longbow at the Berserker, hitting and doing some decent damage. Then everyone rolled initiative. The goblins took the low end of the order, allowing Bartix, Rurik, and Hermiad to get more missile fire in. This Berserker was being taken down fast, but he needed to draw them into the range of his archer support.
The archers triggered their obvious trap (that everyone tried, unsuccessfully, to detect) by firing flaming arrows at charges in the ceiling. Two rockslide traps sprung on Hermiad, Rurik, and Varin, doing some minor damage. The other two fired directly at the adventurers with minor success. Next the Berserker leapt from the altar and charged Hermiad, whacking for 8 or so.
Mendas and Rurik responded to the Berserker, bloodying him. But this played into his hand: his damage output doubled, and he started responding to melee attacks with another attack! He may have done 50 damage in a round, including 25 to Rurik with a maxed damage roll. Bartix magic-missiled him, and Hermiad shifted away to nearly finish him with a longbow. With only one hit point left, Edgar did the honors.
Oddny, Edgar, and Rurik moved up to the altar to take out the archers.
Meanwhile, Bartix had heard sounds echoing through the dungeon. He could still understand Goblish, so he could understand them saying, "We've got them now, boys! We're the last chance!" Bartix positioned himself by the door, and readied his spells. Meanwhile Hermiad and Mendas set themselves up on the other side, ready to capitalize. Rurik used his Knight's Move to help Mendas get in position, which was cool.
The goblins charged in: five Skullcleavers and one Warcaster. Bartix let them into the room and released a Freezing Cloud. Three of them went down. Bartix them spent an action point and pulled a Thunderwave, sending another group of three back into the Ranger-Rogue blender (I think only one guy was iced and thundered). This generated four attacks of opportunity, killing the Warcaster and wounding the others. Ah, my warcaster!
Well, he had had another job besides casting spells or whatever, he was supposed to throw a snake! From his corpse, a small snake slithered from a bag on his belt. Once released, it instantly grew into a Deathrattle Viper which now threatened Hermiad!
Meanwhile two remaining untouched Skullsplitters went after Bartix. One rolled low, the other did serious damage. Everybody in the back of the room needed help. A fifth Skullsplitter escaped into the middle of the room, charging Varin!
Bartix was in the most trouble, as he couldn't take the heat he was facing. Rurik left the archer he was facing and shot across the battlefield in an action-point-fueled blur, charging one and hitting. These guys were pretty easy to hit, AC and all other defenses around 16, but they could dish out damage on par with the toughest PCs. As the goblins responded to the hits, Rurik was overwhelmed and fell down, at -3 hit points!
Oddny killed her archer but left the minion behind, crossing the battlefield to aid Rurik. Bartix kept backing up and firing, but he was threatened. Meanwhile, Hermiad and Mendas locked up the snake. This monster was hard to hit, but was cursed with terrible luck. I realized at some point that it was bloodied but that I had no idea what his attack power was, because he had yet to hit! With combat advantage established, the snake went down, and the two strikers went on to help with the remaining Skullsplitters.
Oddny switched from Medic to Hacker/Slasher, and Edgar killed the last of the goblin archers. The warforged then crossed the room to engage the Skullsplitters. Bartix was severly injured tried to gain some distance from the fray and used Expeditious Retreat to move back to the front of the room, apparently safe. But now the heavy fighters had ignored the goblin minions. A good tactical choice, but the wizard and the warlock were somewhat vulnerable. A minion charged Bartix, hit, and killed him! I informed Zach that this was the weakest enemy in the game, and for shame. Varin cleared the minion off the fallen wizard, and Oddny helped get him stable.
With multiple fighters and combat advantage aplenty, the goblins were falling fast. Mendas was sneak-attacking every which way, and Hermiad benefitted from his third crit of the night. At last, the only enemy left standing was one goblin minion, still rooted in fear at his original spot on the altar. Everyone's eyes fell on him, and he pleaded fervently for his life! Unfortunately, he was standing right next to a statue of Thor, who doesn't go in for that shit at all. What killed him, an arrow, a Dire Radiance, a Magic Missile? I can't quite remember; point is, dude is dead.
The vikings collapsed from the epic battle that had seen two characters below zero hit points and hundreds of points of damage dealt out. They had gone into it knowing that this was the last act of the adventuring day, and most of them had spend all remaining powers. A quick search of the room found some healing potions, gold, and a suit of Sylvan Leather Armor on one of the Skullspliters. Most interesting, however, was the inscription on the base of the Thor statue:
Everyone's religion and arcana rolls indicated that the words were incongruent with Thor, and that the shrine was magical in some way. Bartix studied the inscription closely and noticed that a letter came away with his finger and dragged across the surface of the stone. Everyone realized that this was an anagram puzzle, and sat down to figure it out. "THOR" was easy to find, but the rest took some doing. Finally, Mendas intoned "Armory of Thor!"
The stone split and opened, leading to a small room underneath the statue. Here everyone found cool stuff!
The vikings barricaded the room with loose rocks and bedded down for the night. There had been five encounters in the day, four of them combined into two encounters, so it was pretty tough day. For dinner? Roast snake!
All through the night the dungeon was silent. As far as anyone could tell, the goblin threat had been depopulated. In the morning the crew cleared the doorway and set out. They immediately came to a great opening to the north of the shrine. The pit was easily 90 feet across and fifty feet deep. A footpath traced the exterior, spiraling down to a small platform. Lighting the pit with spells revealed a doorway, along with several corpses. The adventurers could see two goblin bodies along with some ancient armored humanoid skeletons. This armor gleamed despite its age, perhaps it was magic! In the DM game, that's what we call Baiting the Hook.
Speaking of baits and hooks, Mendas volunteered to descend into the pit, secured by a line to Edgar. He carefully transversed the footpath with Edgar following above, ready to yank him up at any moment. When suddenly...
Casualties:
1 Elite Savage Berserker Goblin Skullplitter
4 Goblin Sharpshooters
4 Goblin Minions
5 Goblin Skullsplitters
1 Elite Frostborn Goblin Warcaster
1 Deathrattle Viper
24 beers! A new record for the campaign! Celebrating drunkenness is crass and at least eight years behind me, but USA! USA!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Isle of Fury part 5
On Wednesday we played Part 5 of the Isle of Fury encounter. We had a record seven players in attendance (up from four, our previous high water mark). That's the maximum my living room can hold, so we had a lot of bumping of elbows. However, everyone was engaged in the game, and I think it worked.
We left off with the party recovering from clearing out a metric ton of goblins. While several characters had used their daily powers, everyone had a decent amount of healing surges. Additionally the party was buffered by the arrival of Hermiad (Elf Ranger, now 2nd level like everyone else) and Edgar (Warforged Fighter, completely new). Bartix grabbed some of the goblin warcaster's (RIP) journals, and the party pressed on. They decided to ignore a door just north of the goblin's study, but instead forged north-east, following the passage that had led to the barracks.
Despite vowing to play it safe this game, Mendas took the lead. He jumped back suddenly as he sensed a weakness in the floor below him. Edgar was called up to push with his sword, and yes, a pit trap opened up in the floor. Peering down, the party saw freshly poisoned spikes at the bottom of a 10-foot drop. They skirted the exterior and pressed on.
In a few feet more, the vikings reached a crossroads. The caverns branched to the left, and the passage emanated a foul smell. Ahead of them, they could see a further branch. Mendas and Hermiad strained their senses and decided that the smell was not rotting meat, not death, but probably refuse. In fact, Hermiad's epic Perception and Nature skills told him that the goblins were eating vegetarian and fish, meaning that they had run through all the game on the island. Everyone decided to leave the goblin toilet alone... everyone but Bartix! Knowing that neatly every room in a dungeon could contain valuable treasure, Bartix trudged down the reaking hallway to investigate. Edgar volunteered to play bodyguard and followed... actually, I think they reversed this order once they got to the room.
The passage opened up into a mammoth cavern, 50 feet across and nearly twice as deep. Giant mushrooms bloomed throughout the room, along with dense piles of mold and filth. Pools of thick stinking liquid stood in varying places along the floor, especially across the exterior border. Tracks leading to sitting spots indicated that, yes, this was an active goblin latrine... perhaps a larder as well!
Bartix looked about and didn't see any traditional treasure, but identified at least 20 gold worth of material components. The two walked forward to check out the valuable mushrooms, but then the filth in the back stirred as two giant beetles charged out!
Bartix got the high initiative and jumped back to the doorway, firing a magic missile at the beetles from safety. The beetles charged into combat with Edgar, but both failed to hit. Edgar was now stuck, and did a Reaping strike to hit both. But this ruined Bartix's plan to retreat, and he called the rest of the part for backup.
The five other vikings ran in, covering the fifty feet to the room pretty quickly. Bartix, Hermiad, and Varin lit up the beetles with missile fire, but Rurik and Oddny could only make it to the doorway of the room. In the meantime the beetles chewed up Edgar, criting once and doing near maximum damage on the other bite. The warforged was now bloodied, but the beetles had also taken a lot of shots.
At this point I played the rest of my hand. The floor bubbled, and two Ochre Jellies rose out from the filth. I didn't announce the name of the monster, and the players naturally assumed this was animated goblin shit. Well, maybe it was; by the time we played this room, the impulses that drove me to select this monster are lost.
Anyway, the Jellies could teleport from liquid square to liquid square effortlessly, and they charged across the room to attack the Wizard and the Warlock in the back (but not doing much damage in the process).
Meanwhile, the beetles retreated from the fight, drawing free hits from Edgar. They responded by shooting entangling spittle out at Edgar and Rurik, immobilizing them both. Ooh, not just beetles but Tangler Beetles!
The Ochre Jellies were now the major threat, and the party started whacking them in grand style. This combat was a really good showcase of how everyone's improved at 2nd level: for every hit the jellies landed, the vikings landed four. I think the jellies are designed like that too: their defenses are low, but their hit points are legion.
Then we hit the point that I had been waiting for: One of the jellies was bloodied, and he split in two! Awesome... that freaked everybody out and made them realize it was time for the encounter powers. Each monster only has one chance at freaking people out with their crazy power, and this one was good.
Edgar and Rurik broke out of their immobilization and joined the rest of the party on the Jellies, who were going down fast now. Hermiad killed one beetle with his bow, then tried to move on to the jelly, but he swung a wide arc into the room to hop between the pools of standing filth. This triggered a Doomspore Mushroom! But he was fine... Varin started to roast the second beetle. Under assault from Mendas, Hermiad, and Bartix, the second original jelly split at the same time that the first two clones expired. I think the remaining monsters went down at about the same time.
We wrapped up by scouting the room. Hermiad determined that there was one more Doomspore mushroom in the room, and everyone avoided that. Bartix got some material components (I'll say 40 gp, some great mushrooms indeed), but there was no treasure to be found. Everyone was in decent shape: in fact, Mendas didn't get hit! The party decided to keep going and to wind their way to a new room in the dungeon. We'll start immediately next game by revealing that room.
So Gencon was last month, and a lot of material, interviews and podcasts, came out of it trying to clarify what 4th Edition is supposed to look like. This game was my attempt to reflect these maxims: big open room, lots of defining scenery, combination of traps and monsters. I've mentioned in the past that this adventure was based on the published Isle of Fury from Goodman Games, but at this point I'm using only the skeleton of the adventure. The design of rooms, monsters, etc. always demands a radical Something Else.
Everyone got 274 experience points for the traps and the monsters.
Casualties:
1 Elite Pit Floor trap
2 Doomspore Mushroom traps
2 Tangler Beetles
2 Ochre Jellies
19 Beers (counting the giant Wegmans novelty beers as 2 each)
We left off with the party recovering from clearing out a metric ton of goblins. While several characters had used their daily powers, everyone had a decent amount of healing surges. Additionally the party was buffered by the arrival of Hermiad (Elf Ranger, now 2nd level like everyone else) and Edgar (Warforged Fighter, completely new). Bartix grabbed some of the goblin warcaster's (RIP) journals, and the party pressed on. They decided to ignore a door just north of the goblin's study, but instead forged north-east, following the passage that had led to the barracks.
Despite vowing to play it safe this game, Mendas took the lead. He jumped back suddenly as he sensed a weakness in the floor below him. Edgar was called up to push with his sword, and yes, a pit trap opened up in the floor. Peering down, the party saw freshly poisoned spikes at the bottom of a 10-foot drop. They skirted the exterior and pressed on.
In a few feet more, the vikings reached a crossroads. The caverns branched to the left, and the passage emanated a foul smell. Ahead of them, they could see a further branch. Mendas and Hermiad strained their senses and decided that the smell was not rotting meat, not death, but probably refuse. In fact, Hermiad's epic Perception and Nature skills told him that the goblins were eating vegetarian and fish, meaning that they had run through all the game on the island. Everyone decided to leave the goblin toilet alone... everyone but Bartix! Knowing that neatly every room in a dungeon could contain valuable treasure, Bartix trudged down the reaking hallway to investigate. Edgar volunteered to play bodyguard and followed... actually, I think they reversed this order once they got to the room.
The passage opened up into a mammoth cavern, 50 feet across and nearly twice as deep. Giant mushrooms bloomed throughout the room, along with dense piles of mold and filth. Pools of thick stinking liquid stood in varying places along the floor, especially across the exterior border. Tracks leading to sitting spots indicated that, yes, this was an active goblin latrine... perhaps a larder as well!
Bartix looked about and didn't see any traditional treasure, but identified at least 20 gold worth of material components. The two walked forward to check out the valuable mushrooms, but then the filth in the back stirred as two giant beetles charged out!
Bartix got the high initiative and jumped back to the doorway, firing a magic missile at the beetles from safety. The beetles charged into combat with Edgar, but both failed to hit. Edgar was now stuck, and did a Reaping strike to hit both. But this ruined Bartix's plan to retreat, and he called the rest of the part for backup.
The five other vikings ran in, covering the fifty feet to the room pretty quickly. Bartix, Hermiad, and Varin lit up the beetles with missile fire, but Rurik and Oddny could only make it to the doorway of the room. In the meantime the beetles chewed up Edgar, criting once and doing near maximum damage on the other bite. The warforged was now bloodied, but the beetles had also taken a lot of shots.
At this point I played the rest of my hand. The floor bubbled, and two Ochre Jellies rose out from the filth. I didn't announce the name of the monster, and the players naturally assumed this was animated goblin shit. Well, maybe it was; by the time we played this room, the impulses that drove me to select this monster are lost.
Anyway, the Jellies could teleport from liquid square to liquid square effortlessly, and they charged across the room to attack the Wizard and the Warlock in the back (but not doing much damage in the process).
Meanwhile, the beetles retreated from the fight, drawing free hits from Edgar. They responded by shooting entangling spittle out at Edgar and Rurik, immobilizing them both. Ooh, not just beetles but Tangler Beetles!
The Ochre Jellies were now the major threat, and the party started whacking them in grand style. This combat was a really good showcase of how everyone's improved at 2nd level: for every hit the jellies landed, the vikings landed four. I think the jellies are designed like that too: their defenses are low, but their hit points are legion.
Then we hit the point that I had been waiting for: One of the jellies was bloodied, and he split in two! Awesome... that freaked everybody out and made them realize it was time for the encounter powers. Each monster only has one chance at freaking people out with their crazy power, and this one was good.
Edgar and Rurik broke out of their immobilization and joined the rest of the party on the Jellies, who were going down fast now. Hermiad killed one beetle with his bow, then tried to move on to the jelly, but he swung a wide arc into the room to hop between the pools of standing filth. This triggered a Doomspore Mushroom! But he was fine... Varin started to roast the second beetle. Under assault from Mendas, Hermiad, and Bartix, the second original jelly split at the same time that the first two clones expired. I think the remaining monsters went down at about the same time.
We wrapped up by scouting the room. Hermiad determined that there was one more Doomspore mushroom in the room, and everyone avoided that. Bartix got some material components (I'll say 40 gp, some great mushrooms indeed), but there was no treasure to be found. Everyone was in decent shape: in fact, Mendas didn't get hit! The party decided to keep going and to wind their way to a new room in the dungeon. We'll start immediately next game by revealing that room.
So Gencon was last month, and a lot of material, interviews and podcasts, came out of it trying to clarify what 4th Edition is supposed to look like. This game was my attempt to reflect these maxims: big open room, lots of defining scenery, combination of traps and monsters. I've mentioned in the past that this adventure was based on the published Isle of Fury from Goodman Games, but at this point I'm using only the skeleton of the adventure. The design of rooms, monsters, etc. always demands a radical Something Else.
Everyone got 274 experience points for the traps and the monsters.
Casualties:
1 Elite Pit Floor trap
2 Doomspore Mushroom traps
2 Tangler Beetles
2 Ochre Jellies
19 Beers (counting the giant Wegmans novelty beers as 2 each)
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