BlackTree Chronicles #13: Against the Night, Part Two

Last Time: The characters ran through the city as wraiths attacked, defending townsfolk where they could and looking to grab the wraithstones that brought the wraiths there.

This Time: Lot of fast combats with boards full of minions.  No time for extended rests, so each combat wore the group down gradually.  The group acquired all the wraithstones, and then high-tailed it out of town, with hundreds of wraiths pursuing them, almost descending upon the group to bring the Pcs into their undead ranks…just as day broke, and the wraith horde dispersed.

The Twist: Some of the townspeople were being mind-controlled by the wraiths.  This was a fun and interesting combat as I also added two conditions: 1) the players could get XP by killing no one out of 20 possessed citizens and 2) because of their crazed nature, they couldn’t just choose to drop the citizens at 0 without talking an attack roll penalty.  The PCs managed to navigate this by isolating and killing the controlling wraiths.

Some Background: Finneas Jack, an old foe of the party, was yelling taunts out from the shadows.  The players know he’s involved with this somehow, but they don’t know what yet.

The Best Part: The final skill challenge of the evening with the PCs high-tailing it out of town with an “entourage” of soul-thirsty wraiths.  The players were in absolutely no shape to fight anything.  Low on HP, no healing surges, the PCs could not have survived anything close to a real fight, so the tension was pretty high on the results of the skill challenge.  When your players themselves audibly breathe a sigh of relief, you know you’ve done your job.

Similar Posts:

•      Blacktree Chronicles #12: Against the Night, Part One
•      Blacktree Chronicles #11: The True Illusion of Death
•      BlackTree Chronicles: The Story So Far.