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| Wrath River King - questions for designers and patrons |
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| Wolfgang |
 Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
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Great writeup, thank you!
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Wolfgang Baur
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
Played again tonight and got through two encounters (eel hounds and Boar Hunt) plus some "Lost in the Woods" incidents. The eel hounds managed to surround everyone quite nicely and the Black Fey Runners were a nightmare for the PCs to deal with - both very cool minions!
Will post a write-up of the session later tomorrow if I get the chance.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:48 pm Post subject: Eel Hounds & Boar Patrol |
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Hi,
Session write up follows, cross-posted from my LJ:
27th Maius (contd)
Confronted by the baying pack of eel hounds, Brave Ella climbs up the grassy bank where she can take potshots at them, but Krivinn, Koh-Bar and Margarita soon find themselves surrounded by frenzied eels and slipping all over the place on the muddy shore. Koh-Bar goes unconscious from multiple slithering bites. To rescue the tiefling, Krivinn lays hands on him, then throws him up the bank. Meanwhile, the pack leader has eel-spat at Ella twice and then closes to attack her at close quarters. Koh-Bar uses his thunder leap to jump back into the action, misses three out of four eel hounds, ends up unconscious again and then fails two death saves before being healed by Krivinn. Margarita revives Ella who is being attacked by the leader and then slays the beast after it’s bloodied by Krivinn. Weary from their travails, the PCs head up the creek to find somewhere to rest for the night as it’s getting dark.
The party set up camp – Ella talks about building a fire but using this word seems to freak out Koh-Bar who runs off into the woods, ranting and raving. While he’s gone, Ella makes her small fire. Koh-Bar spots a man of leaves in the trees and returns to the others but Krivinn says the word “fire” again, causing the sorcerer to run off again. When he comes back for a second time, Krivinn sets him off for a third time, then Sharden does. Eventually the PCs stop tormenting the tiefling as twigs in their campfire start screaming and writhing around as if in agony! Krivinn grabs several twigs out of the flames, burning himself in the process, and then lays hands on the sticks in an effort to heal them. The party don’t light another fire and Sharden uses a scroll to cast magic mouth to guard the campsite.
The PCs settle down to rest but Ella’s watch is disturbed by a flock of owls swooping and diving through the camp. Fortunately the others get back to sleep and the party manages to take an extended rest.
Feywild, Day 2
The PCs continue to follow the creek upstream, running into a group of fey and their two hunting boars. They refuse to bow down and swear fealty to the eladrin so battle ensues. The Black Fey runners turn invisible and blind the PCs with their feyshot wands while the boars charge Krivinn and Margarita and the witch surrounds herself in a shadowy aura. After a tough battle where the PCs don’t know where to target with their powers, the PCs are victorious but two of the Black Fey runners manage to escape.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:11 am Post subject: |
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Another tiny bit of errata:
The Eel hound Pack Leader's Eel Frenzy is listed as an encounter power in the stat block but it talks about it recharging in the Tactics section.
FWIW, I went with encounter power.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:45 pm Post subject: Session #4 |
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Here's the write up of last night's game. I only had three players but they coped pretty well with the Cutting Quicklings (nine dire crow minions), the Frog Marsh (non-elite frogs) and the Enchantress and Her Courtiers skill challenge. Lots of fun!
Day 2, contd
Sharden and Krivinn don’t return from their pursuit of the two fleeing Black Fey runners. Unsure of what to do, Brave Ella, Margarita and Koh-Bar the God King head back down the creek. After a while, Ella spots a colourfully-painted wagon through the trees. She creeps up to investigate only to be attacked and mocked by a speeding fey (a quickling). Near the wagon is a large bare tree, full of roosting dire crows; another quickling whizzes round. Ella calls on the others to help as the quicklings and crows attack. Since the fey are trying to goad the PCs into speaking, Koh-Bar tries (and fails) to impress them with a tiefling poem but Margarita manages to show off her knowledge of fey history, Ella demonstrates her affinity for nature and the sorcerer does manage to spin an entertaining yarn about his favourite topic – himself. The quicklings reveal some important information* but ultimately, the PCs’ words fail to win them over and all out battle ensues. Koh-Bar gets rid of all but one crow with thunder leap and Margarita manages to bull rush one fey into the ravine. The tiefling is soon unconscious, falling to a quickling's strike, but both fey run for it shortly afterwards once bloodied. They dash inside the tree and don’t reappear. Inside, there is no sign of them – just a ring of toadstools growing amongst dead leaves. Wounded after the fight, the PCs decide to sleep in the wagon for the night.
Day 3
The PCs wake up and go outside to find their surroundings have changed – they are clearly somewhere else entirely! Hearing running water, they head towards it to find themselves on the bank of a slow-moving river. Standing on lily pads are two giant frogs and their goblin riders. The PCs try to negotiate but this doesn’t get them very far as the frogs charge across the lily pads to engage the party. Koh-Bar uses his thunder leap to get amongst them and the PCs win the day. In one of the saddlebags they find a scroll containing an invite to the Birch Queen’s Fair.
Crossing the river, the PCs head along a trail, finding a folded up piece of parchment ahead of them on the ground. Koh-Bar’s “reversed earthquake surge” doesn’t manage to lift it up so he bends down and picks it up. “Leave!” is all it says (in Elvish).
Carrying on along the road, the party come out of the forest and into hilly countryside where they spot a gaily coloured tent. Here, they join three eladrin at a picnic: Lady Sorreminx, Sir Yngress the Red and Lord Chelessfield, Master of the Alpine Marches. The PCs try to amuse the fey with their witty repartee and interesting anecdotes while deflecting some of Lord Chelessfield’s more tricky questions (such as where Margarita got her shield). They do pretty well but then Margarita talks of a challenge. Sir Yngress seizes on her words and challenges the genasi to a duel, giving the warlord no choice but to accept. The fey don’t play fair though – Margarita gets ready to face the eladrin but is surprised when he leaps onto his riding boar. Sir Yngress’ charge bloodies the genasi with his first strike, winning the challenge. This means that each PC has to give Lady Sorreminx a gift and swear fealty to her. Koh-Bar tries to resist but his refusal comes out as an oath of loyalty to the lady. Each PCs is given a badge with her symbol – a cricket - to wear.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:53 pm Post subject: Latest session |
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Hi,
I ran Wrath again last night - just three players so I toned down the Nain Rouge, reducing him to 200 hp. The ettin skill challenge was great fun and I followed Wolfgang's suggestion of writing successes and failures on the battlemat - worked well in raising a bit of tension towards the end as no one wanted to put their foot in it!
Day 3 (contd.)
The PCs leave the eladrin, following their directions to the Birch Queen’s Fair. Margarita and Koh-Bar manage to lose Brave Ella who is scouting ahead in the forest. Koh-Bar realises Margarita is standing inside a giant footprint – more head into the trees. Not sure what else to do, the pair follow the colossal tracks, ending up in a clearing with a standing stone and a trussed-up Sharden hanging upside-down in a tree. They rescue the dwarf who is pleased to see them but can’t remember how he got there.
Venturing on, the trio come towards an enormous fallen tree as storm clouds gather overhead and it begins to rain. Standing on the tree trunk is a red-cap wearing dwarf – the Nain Rouge, lightning crackling from his fingertips. He blasts the PCs with strong winds, knocking them over and shooting them with electric ray attacks. As the PCs move to escape the zone of empathic weather, the Nain Rouge attacks Koh-Bar with his sharp claws, knocking the tiefling unconscious. Meanwhile, Sharden has found the unconscious Ellessandra behind the trunk and manages to wake her up. Margarita chases the bloodied Nain Rouge along the top of the log but the fey retaliates with a fog cloud which blinds the party as Sharden summons his onyx dog. By the time the PCs get out of the cloud, the redcap is nowhere to be seen.
The PCs talk to Ellessandra who explains she came to the Feywild to bring up her son, Flax. When the party tell her about Hamid being arrested for murder, the eladrin gives the PCs her wedding ring and a note saying she is alive and well. She also gives them the correct directions to the Birch Queen’s Fair. Rest.
Day 4
The PCs talk their way into the Fair past the ettin, Garag-Naran. In return, the party must bring him an amphora of feywine from Ambertan the Warlock and a loaf of bread with honey.
The party wander the stalls. Koh-Bar is put off by the price of a “house goblin” and Margarita asks Voyland the Smith about trading in his longsword for a bastard sword. The eladrin smith is willing to do a deal – he’ll swap the sword if the PCs drive the horrible little gnome weapons dealer, Mudflick, from the Fair. At Mudflick’s tent, Margarita provokes an attack from the spriggan and his four friends but the gnomes defeat the party pretty handily – Margarita is knocked unconscious and Sharden has to drag the genasi’s body out of harm’s way. The PCs beat a hasty retreat from the tent, nursing their wounds.
Any comments? Is anyone else running this adventure?
Cheers
Richard |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:48 am Post subject: |
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I plan on running it shortly as a PbP.
-Ben.
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progressio sine timore aut praejudica - Spectemur agendo |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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| terraleon wrote: |
I plan on running it shortly as a PbP.
-Ben. |
I think that would work really well. We're having great fun playing it so far.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:18 pm Post subject: Second Session at the Birch Queen's Fair |
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Cross-posted from my LJ, here's what happened in last night's game. The leprechauns are stolen from UK 1 Beyond the Crystal Cave!
With Margarita conscious again, she and Koh-Bar head over to a market stall manned by a trio of leprechauns chanting annoying rhymes. The fey introduce themselves as Seamus, Patrick and Michael and offer for sale some of the gear the PCs lost in the river. To win their stuff back, the pair have to answer riddles – Koh-Bar recovers his crown and Margarita wins Sharden’s boot before the tiefling gives a wrong answer and loses both items again! To get his crown back again, the sorcerer gives up two points of intelligence (Gift of the Mind) for a day.
As they leave the stall, the two PCs are approached by a shifter named Rami, a shaman, who explains he has a score to settle with Mudflick – the gnome has stolen a spear from his tribe. While they chat to Rami, a goblin approaches with a tray of sugared plums. All three PCs eat one (Rami has two) and end up tripping, imagining themselves as mice and the fey stallholders as feral cats! The party head for a tree away from the market and wait for the plums to wear off.
Next, the PCs visit the tent of Ambertan the Black Fey Warlock – here Koh-Bar gives up a Memory of Great Prowess (100 xp) in exchange for directions to someone who can help them get home – Tatzel the Green whose lair lies to the east. Margarita trades her history skill (Gift of Learning) for two days for an amphora of feywine. Then, the PCs leave the tent before giving up anything else!
They buy a loaf of bread at a baker’s stall and talk to the wolfen Rhorlief who has rituals for sale including the Fey Road ritual. Deciding that they don’t want to pay his price of their memories of their masters, the PCs say they’ll come back later. Margarita takes up the challenge of an ogre boxer after Koh-Bar declines. Unfortunately her biggest blows aren’t enough to hurt her opponent and she ends up yielding after the ogre hits her very hard indeed. The PCs study the next bout but can’t figure out what’s going on. As they stand there, a robed eladrin calls out to them, offering moments in time for sale. This mage, Orelliar, trades one of Koh-Bar’s future moments of success for the memory of Lady Wickerbell’s wedding to Lord Apicus in the Great Rippling Hall of the River Court.
Under a giant mushroom, the PCs run into two goblins, Splug and Nobby who are selling more of the party’s missing equipment. Brave Ella turns up while the others talk to the goblins and buys back her boot. After this, Ella heads to Mudflick’s shop and threatens the gnome which kicks off a second battle with the party. Rami uses his shielding fire to damage anyone who attacks Margarita – this kills Moppsy. Koh-Bar kills Maggle and then Mudflick with thunderleap; Ella slays Modred. Rami recovers his tribe’s longspear but the Birch Queen’s arrival stops wholesale looting by the others in the party. The PCs drag Mayhem, the one surviving gnome, to see Voyland as evidence they’ve driven off the spriggans. The eladrin smith exchanges Margarita’s +1 magic longsword for a +1 lightning bastard sword.
The gnomes dealt with, the PCs head to the Herald’s Field where Brave Ella shoots in the archery contest and manages to get through to the next round of the competition to become the Birch Queen’s Consort. She wins a honeycomb.
Cheers
Richard |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 4988
Location: The Mines
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The Birch Queen's Fair is one of my favorite bits from three years of Open Design. It sounds like your group had a pretty good time of it.
Thanks for the writeup!
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Wolfgang Baur
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang wrote: |
| The Birch Queen's Fair is one of my favorite bits from three years of Open Design. |
I would have to second that...I'm hard pressed to come up with a similar event in another adventure.
-Ben.
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progressio sine timore aut praejudica - Spectemur agendo |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang wrote: |
The Birch Queen's Fair is one of my favorite bits from three years of Open Design. It sounds like your group had a pretty good time of it.
Thanks for the writeup! |
I'm enjoying running the Fair and I think the players are having fun playing it although I've always found with fey tricksters that there's a bit of line to walk between frustration and player fun.
I was better prepared this session than the first one so wrote down a list of stuff I wanted to use from the adventure plus my own encounters so I could just pick the most appropriate whenever the players/PCs seemed lost or something needed to happen. Worked very well. I used both Rhorlief and the annoying leprechauns from UK1 (complete with their really annoying rhymes) in a previous adventure I ran for my wife based around the Pool of Glenmarsis from Monte's Books of Eldritch Might.
We're not playing for a few weeks now but the next session will be the Queen's Consort contest, Ellessandra's reappearance and Flax's arrival I reckon.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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Cross-posted from my LJ, here's the write-up of Monday night's session - first one for a few weeks.
In the second round of the contest to become the Birch Queen’s contest, Ella is up against Oiglas the centaur’s nature stories, Sir Arnovar’s poetry, Harrowdin the Black Fey’s grim anecdotes and Sir Yngress the Red’s hunting stories. She makes it through to the third and final round with a virtuoso display of acrobatics.
Round three is an audience with the Birch Queen at her table on the Lords and Ladies Mount. The other PCs are invited too and do their best to support Ella in her conversation with the Queen but in the end the ranger balks at the one year term as consort and the Queen, perhaps fortunately, favours the charming Eagle Knight, Sir Arnovar, who has the added advantage of being male. Ella is offered and accepts the Queen’s badge.
As the PCs make their way off to bed – well, bedroll under the stars – they run into Ellessandra. More time has passed than they thought as the eladrin talks as if she and the PCs met a long time ago rather than yesterday. She warns the PCs that the River King is likely to raid Riverbend for not making the agreed offerings.
Day 5
Ella trades her woodcraft skills to the lone wolf, Rhorlief for the Fey Roads ritual (-1 to attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws and ability checks). The PCs then decide to leave the fair. As they head towards the exit and the ettin, they witness the arrival of Lord Flax – recognised by Margarita as the grown-up version of the young lad they met inside the mill in Riverbend. Lord Flax is recruiting fey for a raid on Riverbend and won’t be persuaded otherwise by Krivinn. Ambertan the Warlock and the Black Fey are the first to join up. As Lord Flax makes ready to petition the River King for permission to attack the village, the PCs head past Garag-Nagan and out of the fair.
Heading east along the Straight Road, the PCs turn off to visit the clearing of Tatzel the wyrm. The area is full of mist, making it hard to see. Krivinn, Sharden and Ella are attacked by the dragon’s dragonborn protectors as Koh-Bar and Margarita face off against Tatzel who attacks with bite, claws and dragon breath. Koh-bar, who gave up a future moment of success at the Fair, fails a saving throw to shake off the dragon’s poison.
As the battle goes on, the PCs realise that fire can clear the mist, making things easier. Once Brave Ella has killed the dragonborn attacking her, she shoots Tatzel which bloodies the dragon – a dozen kobolds spring up from his blood but luckily Sharden is able to take most of them out with taste the star’s fall. Unluckily, this fills the area up with smoke, making it hard to see again! Eventually, the PCs force Tatzel to yield and he gives up the secret of returning to the natural world – the PCs must travel to the False Mill, following the river towards the Cedar Mountains. By swimming down to touch the millstone at the bottom of the pond, they can return to Riverbend. Koh-bar also asks how he can learn more about his godly origins – Tatzel says the Oak King might be able to answer this question.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:05 pm Post subject: |
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Here's what happened in Monday night's game in which we saw the tragic end of Koh-Bar.
Feywild Day 5, contd.
After the battle with Tatzel, the PCs head to a safe distance down the Straight Road and then camp. While Koh-Bar is on watch, hundreds of moths gather around the campfire, forming into alluring female shapes. Koh-Bar is suspicious, blasting the moths with burning spray, but they soon return and reform. He wakes the others and in the end gives in and dances with one of the “moth women”. After a while, they disperse and the PCs go back to sleep.
Day 6
The next morning the Straight Road fizzles out as the woods around the PCs grow darker and more foreboding. Sharden harvests some sickly green mushrooms before the party follow Koh-Bar into the trees. The forest starts to look familiar – reminiscent of the lands of the Black Fey the adventurers were in before going to the fair. Bits of chainmail fall from the trees above – looking up the PCs see severed limbs and mummified heads hanging from the branches. Then, having lost track of the others in the dingy woods, Sharden, Koh-Bar and Margarita enter a clearing draped in spider webs – they can hear raspy voices speaking in Elvish.
As the PCs move forward, Sharden summons Rover, his onyx dog. The trees are inhabited by a pair of ettercaps led by Ariabelina the Lady Clatterspin; the ground is crawling with spiders. Margarita advances to the tree which the ettercap guards are standing in – Lady Clatterspin throws a web at the genasi trapping her. To make things worse, she’s poisoned by one of the guards which stuns her and then bitten by a spider and knocked prone. Sharden blasts the webs with taste the star’s fall but this does 9 hp to Margarita and also fills the area with smoke (again!) As the dwarf goes to help Margarita, Koh-Bar is killing spiders with thunder leap and burning spray and Rover manages to kill one of the ettercap guards. However, the tiefling is surrounded by more arachnids – he goes unconscious and fails two death saves. Margarita and Sharden get out of the smoke and webs and fight the last guard, the spiders and Lady Clatterspin. Sharden tries to parlay as poor Koh-Bar breathes his last, failing his final death save. The ettercap lady agrees to let the PCs withdraw if they leave Koh-Bar’s body behind as suggested by the dwarf.
The two PCs back away, heading along a gorge. As they leave the area, they spot bright blue, green and orange “death butterflies” feeding on a dead owlbear.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:23 am Post subject: |
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Next session is on Monday night with The Fluttering Bridge and Through the Fey River Road as the next encounters up. I'm going to skip Where the Lorelei Sing as I think one encounter en route to the River King's court is enough.
Would be interested to hear how other groups got on in the castle!
Cheers
Richard |
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