We’ve got a new player for this session, recruited off the RPG.NET forums. his name is Matt, and he’s played slightly less 4e than we have — zero games to our one. Over e-mail we discuss that he’s going to play a paladin with a bit of a chackered past as a mercenary. This works out just fine, as it gives him an easy hook to join with the rest of the party. I add in that Arbrand, the mercenary the PCs rescued in session one, was a fellow merc in another company. He’s going to ask the paladin (Marc) for a favor.
Matt arrives at the session sans character generated, which is fine because Chuck needs to go on a beer/pizza run. I’ve known Chuck most of my life, and one thing I’ve never known him to do was perform anything as a half measure. He arrives back at my condo with two large pizzas and a *box* full of beer. Poor Rachel barely made it up the stairs with the beer, but don’t worry — I was there to help.
If you’ve seen pictures of my lonely table from the last fated, never-played session, you’ll see that I made power cards for the players — pdfs + old MapleStory TCG cards + deck sleeves = success in short order. Matt had already picked out his powers and e-mailed them to me, so I was able to get them set up (last minute) for him as well.
About a half-hour after everyone arrives we’re ready for action. I rewind the action a bit to fill in the backstory before Arbrand comes to see Bobric (Chuck’s new, vile name for his elf) and Tryst. Arbrand and Marc knew each other while part of a mercenary band filled with the scum of the earth. Marc had murdered the CO and Arbrand had helped him escape. Marc has just finished his training at the temple of Pelor in New Water. He’s hesitant about raising his sword after what he’s seen and what he’s done, but he believes in his new cause. Arbrand arrives at his door to lend him some needed motivation to take action. Arbrand pleads with Marc to help rescue his captain (Huxer Grokes) before the kobolds kill him. Arbrand has found some adventurers who have agreed to help him, but he wants to make sure there is someone he knows and trusts. Arbrand had tried to avoid making contact with Marc during his training, but the gruff old mercernary feels desperation clinging at him.
Marc doesn’t ponder too long before deciding to help. He knows that Arbrand would never use his friendship lightly, and besides, there are debts to be paid for Arbrand’s assistance of the paladin in his “past life”.
Corlia thanks then kindly dismisses Tryst (“I need simply to rest now, my dear”) — in the shock of the past day’s events, Corlia hasn’t really had time to let Tryst’s, errr, otherworldy traits unsettle her. As I explain to Rachel, Corlia has one of two things to freak out over — horns or dead husband. She has chosen the latter, but might choose the former after the shock runs its course through her.
Arbrand introduces Marc to Bobric and Tryst, and proposes to pay them each 30 gp if the can get to Huxer within the next three days, a time past which Arbrand reasons his captain will be beyond salvation. After some relatively callous, hair-splitting negotiations (“Well, what if we find him only half dead? What do we get?”), Marc whispers to Arbrand, “where did you find these two?”
“I was desperate,” Arbrand whispers back. “And now you see why I needed you along.”
Finally everything is agreed to and the players meet at the Pigshead Inn to plan their next move. The first obstacle in their path is that they don’t know where the Slitherblade tribe has taken Huxer. The only real lead they have is that the slitherblades are based mostly in the Tillwood. The players decide to first speak to some people in the town to see if anyone has information, then Rachel conjures up the good idea of finding a map. The only map shop in New Water is Luna’s. Luna is a crazy and senile woman whose shop is beyond disrepair. Maps are “arranged” in pyramid stacks all around the shop. After the players have looked around for a few minutes, Luna finally wakes up and emerges from underneath one of the pyramid stacks to assist the players. They ask for a map of the Tillwood to which Luna replies “oh yes! the Tillwood! It’s lovely! I go there all the time. All the time….ehm, what was the map you wanted again?” A little corrective steering from the players finally starts her on the search for a map of the Tillwood…amidst thousands and thousands of maps…she kindly requests that the players see her in the morning.
The PCs retire and come to see Luna first thing. She has fallen asleep on the counter, map in hand. The players wake her up, pay for the map and get heading off towards the Tillwood. Marc has some knowledge of the area and knows that the most probable place to look for the kobolds would be Kellith’s Grotto. This Grotto has been the home of some of Greyharbours nasiest bandits and gangs. This is most likely not th main hideout for the kobolds, but is a reasonable “safehouse” for them.
On the search I’m a little excited because it’s set up as a skill challenge. I mentioned earlier that I feel skill challenges are my favorite game mechanic in 4e. I want to see if I could continue my enthusiasm for the mechanic or drown it in my GM’s bathtub of failed ideas. From my notes:
Hunt the Hunters
The players decide to track the critter through the woods.
Level 2 compexity 2 6 successes, 3 failuresIf the PCs procured a map, they get a +2 to all nature checks
Each nature test takes a few hours.
Nature (15) Helps keep the players oriented to the surroundings, and keep from getting lost +1 on checks with a map.
History (20) tells players about the Kellith’s Grotto, where many notorious gangs and bandits, the most notorious of the the Kellith Five (from which the grotto got it’s name from) planned their operations. +2 on the next perception checks. you can get this only once.
Perception (15) helps find the kobold’s path.
Thievery (20) helps the players think like thieving kobolds, giving them a jump on what the kobolds do.
I try to keep things open, and let lots of crazy skills get the bonus so the players have options. I give the main skills, but only hint at secondary and tertiary skills. The skill challenge as a gamist-narrativist merge mechanic worked nicely. There was a very cool call-response aspect to the flow of it. I use some spare dice to track the successes and failures for the players, and hammed it up on failures. Bobric starts out using his ranger prowess to search for tracks but came up short. The paladin uses his map to find landmarks and keep them oriented and moving in the right direction. The rogue finds some bits of battle wreckage, which finally gets the rangers gears going and now he’s tracking and finding footprints and scales along their path. Rachel does get a little creative here and decides to use Athletics to climb a tree and get a better perspective. She is able to spot the clearing just a bit further ahead where the grotto should be. Just before they can finish the challenge however, the clatter of swordplay rings faintly through the forest. After Bobric determines the orientation of the noise, he and Tryst stealth it towards the noise, with Marc well in the rear with his plate armor.
As they move towards the noise, they hear a female screaming elvish battlecries. She can be heard well above the swordplay. Bobric is the only one who understands elvish, and he grins in bemusement. The battle cries translate into unseemly things, like “Curses and Damnation!” or “By Corellon’s Lighted Crotch!”.
Not knowing what they’re going to see, the PCs sneak within range of the battle. Their is an elf maiden matted in blood, surrounded by kobolds. She has already slain a half-dozen of them, but there are still nine more attacking her. She has her back to a tree to avoid to minimize flanking. There is one kobold, armed with double shortswords, who is taking potshots at the warrior. She seems intent on hitting it, but every time she swings she catches one of his compatriots, and lets out one of her odd battle cries. The players have seen what they needed to and plunge themselves into the battle. They make short work of the minions, and the only their dual-wielding kobold –a slybade if you haven’t guessed yet — is the only thing left. He is now running for his life. I decided that, instead of getting into a run/swing/run/swing fest, which could take a bit and was sort of boring, I would run the chase as an off the cuff skill challenge. four failures, two successes.
The slyblade darts nimbly through the forest. The paladin lunges for the slyblade but is stumbling over rocks and clanging around in his armor (1 failure). Tryst runs up to the side and bodychecks the slyblade, tipping it off balance (1 success, 1 failure). Bobric follows up by pushing the sly blade from behind (2 success, 1 failure) and Marc, after finally find ing his bearings, has caught up and kicks the slyblade in the tush, throwing him face-first in the dirt (3 successes, 1 failure). Tryst leaps at the rising kobold for the deathblow, but miscalculates, jumping into the path of the paladin, who stumbles into Bobric. By the time they untangle themselves, the slyblade is long gone (3 success, 2 failure).
In the aftermath of the battle, the PCs now get a chance to speak with their rescued elf warrior-maiden, who seems to have calmed down considerably from her battle-berseker state. She introduces herself as Linose. She’s been kicked out of her home for being a battle-crazed harpy. It doesn’t take much convincing from the players to get her to join them. Linose can smell impending battles and that’s mostly what she cares about. The elf ranger thinks he may be in love, but it’s a little too early to tell at this moment.
The players welcome along their new comrade, and a couple of hours later they have arrived at the clearing to Kellith’s Grotto, which is where we wrap up for the night.
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A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
By day he is a technologist.
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