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| Halls of the Mountain King - session write-ups & queries |
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| richgreen01 |
 Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| terraleon wrote: |
I don't know that I'd have them do either. They're a momentary "wall," a rope-like jet of liquid that sprays an oddly-shaped area for the instant of the attack, rather than creating a constant effect...or at least, that was my intent.
-Ben. |
Yeah, that makes sense - that's how I'm going to treat them in future.
Thanks
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:32 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
We're hopefully going to get on to the first encounter of Roots of Madness on Monday night and I'm a bit worried about For the Love of Money being an at-will power. How did this work out in playtesting?
Cheers
Richard |
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| Brandon Hodge |
| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:38 pm Post subject: Awesome!!! |
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Richard! I had no idea this game and thread were going on. So awesome to see all the labor come to life! While I didn't do the 4e conversion, it is still really easy to follow and I'm thrilled to see the result of my beloved first chapter. You made this poppa proud! When you get to chapter 5 I'll be sure and keep an eye out for any questions, although Ben is totally the man for this stuff because, well, he's the man! 
Brandon |
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| Brandon Hodge |
| Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:24 pm Post subject: . |
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repeat.
Last edited by Brandon Hodge on Sun Jul 18, 2010 8:08 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:28 am Post subject: Re: Awesome!!! |
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| Fleece66 wrote: |
Richard! I had no idea this game and thread were going on. So awesome to see all the labor come to life! While I didn't do the 4e conversion, it is still really easy to follow and I'm thrilled to see the result of my beloved first chapter. You made this poppa proud! When you get to chapter 5 I'll be sure and keep an eye out for any questions, although Ben is totally the man for this stuff because, well, he's the man!
Brandon |
Hi Brandon,
Good to hear from you! We're having great fun with the adventure and the players are enjoying trying to figure out all the various things going on in the story. We should finish the first chapter tomorrow night.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:45 pm Post subject: Session #7 Down the Great Stair |
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Hi,
Here's what happened in this week's game. We finished off Ch.1 and moved on to Roots of Madness.
I ran For the Love of Money as an at-will, ruling that the attacking PC does not lose their power if forced to make a melee basic attack instead and it worked fine. The other things I did were to use the new howlers from MM3 and to increase all monster damage in line with the July 2010 rules update. This meant the PCs got bloodied much more often and worked out well.
15th Quintilis (contd.)
The PCs search around the room while Saethus sustains his wall of fire. Eventually, the spell runs out and a pack of crazed howlers charges towards the party, led by a Forsaken soldier mounted on a howler doom mastiff. Krivinn has picked up one of the derro bombards and tries to fire it at the beasts. Unfortunately, he can’t get it to work and throws it to the floor. Even more unfortunately, the bombard explodes, poisoning and slowing himself and the rest of the party! The dread hounds then move into melee; Ella, Krivinn and Bolval are all bloodied. Saethus steps up and casts thunderwave which gets rid of the dread hound minions. Krivinn slays the doom mastiff with paladin’s judgement as Bolval struggles to wield a derro guisarme effectively. The PCs then close in on the Forsaken rider and finish him off.
The battle over, the PCs take a short rest; Saethus examines the magical lenses found on one of the derro - these are part of the Heirlooms of Mazgorax. Meanwhile, Krivinn lines up the bodies of the sacrificial victims in a neat row and piles up the derro and howler bodies in the corner of the room. This done, the PCs head through the broken gate and down the passage to the Great Stair. After walking down the stairs for a while, Bolval warns the others they might get lost without a map or a guide so they decide to return to the top level.
Upstairs, Father Jappe and his acolytes are waiting to talk to the PCs along with a plummy-sounding dwarf in shining armour. This is Varden Redfel, First of the Stair Guard, who asks the party to go down the Great Stair and find out what’s happened to the elementals that normally tend the forges, heating the halls. The elementals are normally looked after by an azer, Abelard the Fire Shepherd, but he’s not been heard from; two groups sent down to investigate previously have not returned. The first of these was led by a journeyman gearworker named Carod.
Before going down the Stair, Khuma tries to find out if anyone has seen Orodak. His enquiries lead him to a plucky orphaned lad named Fiver Hazelwood who remembers the tiefling arriving with two dwarves and spending time with a human named Albricius and a dwarf gearworker while he was in the Halls. No one has seen Orodak for a while; Albricius left on the Drake. In exchange for some food, Fiver shows the PCs to Albricius’ tent – here they find rubbings, apparently from Rabscuttle, and cryptic notes in the same handwriting as those found on the ground beneath the Drake. These read “They put it inside him, hidden in plain sight. The answer is the gears!” and “Tears of the Maiden will wash away the greed! The mountain cannot be cured of the curse it caught!”
Convinced that Rabscuttle is central to what’s going on, the PCs go to talk to Clovis about the gearforged. Rabscuttle is in the camp so the party check his “swirls” against the rubbings - they match. The construct is keen to demonstrate the noise he can make by rubbing a rock on a rusty iron skillet but isn’t keen on getting into Krivinn’s bag of holding to accompany the PCs down the Stair. When pressed, he runs off, taking his skillet with him.
The party head down the Great Stair - the journey takes six hours. En route, the PCs notice graffitti referring to the orichalcum, the Eye and the Teardrop. At the entrance to the Hearthforges, the adventurers can hear sounds of battle ahead. Through the doors, a xorn is battling a group of wild-eyed dwarves –all these creatures are affected by greed fever and attack the party when they enter the room.
Bolval casts spiritual weapon on the xorn as it burrows under the floor and attacks Brave Ella. Krivinn moves into melee and is attacked by the dwarf hammerer (who manages to bloody the paladin) and also gets caught in the blast fired from a molten metal sprayer. This armoured dwarf then smashes into Khuma, knocking him down with his shield, as the dragonborn switches targets to the xorn. However, the elemental earth creature uses its for love of money power to divert attacks away from itself and also keeps moving around, burrowing up in the middle of the party so it can attack three PCs at a time with its claws. Meanwhile, Saethus and Bolval attack from range, eliminating a bunch of goldspawn dwarf minions, as two dwarf crossbowmen return fire. Krivinn finally kills the xorn as it tries to burrow away again and Saethus’ unsporting icy hand grabs one of the bolters. The wizard takes down the crossbowman with magic missile and the paladin delivers the killing blow to the hammerer. With all their enemies dead, the PCs have a quick look around the room, finding a magic spear in the clutches of a dead Forsaken warrior.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:35 am Post subject: Couple of Roots queries & errata |
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Hi,
Maybe Ben can comment or help with these if he's reading this?
p.51 Developments
The sequence of events seems odd here. Did the False Gearworker and Journeyman come and talk to Abelard first and then return 2-3 weeks later to sabotage the Ventshafts? What of Vanessi (p.35) who disrupted the elemental wards? I think it all makes sense but I've got a bit confused by the timeline...
p.55 Shrine to Volund
the text refers to a "gagged armored male dwarf" captive - I'm assuming this is actually the ghast centurion who isn't otherwise mentioned. I'm going to have Indrecalla release this guy so he attacks the party.
p.58 the map numbering has gone really weird. The Ventshafts should be R1 on the map and in the text, and the Elemental Rebellion should be R2.
The burning debris around Gefangak and the furnace's bite aura seem to be the same thing so I am planning to have the PCs take 5 fire damage if entering or starting their turn within 1 sq of him.
Looking forward to running this again after a week off.
Cheers
Richard |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:38 am Post subject: Re: Couple of Roots queries & errata |
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| richgreen01 wrote: |
Maybe Ben can comment or help with these if he's reading this?
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Sure thing!
| richgreen01 wrote: |
p.51 Developments
The sequence of events seems odd here. Did the False Gearworker and Journeyman come and talk to Abelard first and then return 2-3 weeks later to sabotage the Ventshafts? What of Vanessi (p.35) who disrupted the elemental wards? I think it all makes sense but I've got a bit confused by the timeline...
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First, Vanessi:
Jorgen says (under duress),
| Quote: |
Vanessi met with someone known only as the Journeyman, and the elemental wards broke shortly thereafter.
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Who broke the wards isn't stated. Jurgen doesn't know. Only that Vanessi met with "The Journeyman" and then the wards broke shortly thereafter.
I'm not sure where you're getting the 2-3 week timeframe from. The False Gearworker and the Journeyman arrive shortly beforehand. They ask questions they should know the answers to, and so Abelard sends them on the very long route to the Ventshafts, so that he can deal with them. However, before he can do that, the greed fever (spread by the Journeyman and his group) overcomes the dwarves who work the Hearthforges and the Forsaken attack. The Forsaken are mostly repelled, but the dwarves succumb to the disease and Abelard is trapped. During this whole time, the Journeyman and the Gearworker are making their way to the Ventshafts.
| richgreen01 wrote: |
p.55 Shrine to Volund
the text refers to a "gagged armored male dwarf" captive - I'm assuming this is actually the ghast centurion who isn't otherwise mentioned. I'm going to have Indrecalla release this guy so he attacks the party.
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The "gagged, armored male dwarf" isn't supposed to be a dwarf at all. He is a ghoul Centurion. The shift in race was an editorial mixup that I thought was noted. His non-dwarf nature is supposed to make his ghoulish nature obvious if the group has spoken with the Imperial blockade already.
| richgreen01 wrote: |
p.58 the map numbering has gone really weird. The Ventshafts should be R1 on the map and in the text, and the Elemental Rebellion should be R2.
The burning debris around Gefangak and the furnace's bite aura seem to be the same thing so I am planning to have the PCs take 5 fire damage if entering or starting their turn within 1 sq of him.
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Correct. The numbering appears to be off.
You should actually have it do the damage in either case-- the burning debris does 5 fire and acts as difficult terrain. Being within 1 square of Gefangak inflicts 5 fire from his aura. Those are two different sources and I'm not sure why you'd eliminate the damage from the burning debris. I did that in case his powers or the party's powers moved combat to other places in the room.
Being close to him== bad.
Being close to him on the burning debris== worse.
Hopefully that covers things. I'll be at Gencon this week, so I'll be spotty on the replies.
-Ben.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 12:02 pm Post subject: Re: Couple of Roots queries & errata |
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| terraleon wrote: |
First, Vanessi:
Jorgen says (under duress),
| Quote: |
Vanessi met with someone known only as the Journeyman, and the elemental wards broke shortly thereafter.
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Who broke the wards isn't stated. Jurgen doesn't know. Only that Vanessi met with "The Journeyman" and then the wards broke shortly thereafter.
I'm not sure where you're getting the 2-3 week timeframe from. The False Gearworker and the Journeyman arrive shortly beforehand. They ask questions they should know the answers to, and so Abelard sends them on the very long route to the Ventshafts, so that he can deal with them. However, before he can do that, the greed fever (spread by the Journeyman and his group) overcomes the dwarves who work the Hearthforges and the Forsaken attack. The Forsaken are mostly repelled, but the dwarves succumb to the disease and Abelard is trapped. During this whole time, the Journeyman and the Gearworker are making their way to the Ventshafts. |
I'm not sure where I got this from either! I think I assumed that the forges went out around the time the Drake arrived but I must have misunderstood. To be honest, though, it's not really that clear from the adventure what happens when. I definitely thought the dwarves went down with gold fever several days ago and that doesn't seem to be the case from what you're saying!
| terraleon wrote: |
The "gagged, armored male dwarf" isn't supposed to be a dwarf at all. He is a ghoul Centurion. The shift in race was an editorial mixup that I thought was noted. His non-dwarf nature is supposed to make his ghoulish nature obvious if the group has spoken with the Imperial blockade already. |
Thanks!
| terraleon wrote: |
You should actually have it do the damage in either case-- the burning debris does 5 fire and acts as difficult terrain. Being within 1 square of Gefangak inflicts 5 fire from his aura. Those are two different sources and I'm not sure why you'd eliminate the damage from the burning debris. I did that in case his powers or the party's powers moved combat to other places in the room.
Being close to him== bad.
Being close to him on the burning debris== worse.
Hopefully that covers things. I'll be at Gencon this week, so I'll be spotty on the replies.
-Ben. |
Thanks very much for the help!
I ran the game last night and the players enjoyed talking to Abelard and looking for gears in the pockets of brutally murdered dwarves! I forgot about the talking into a can thing but did give him a chirpy cockney voice which worked pretty well. I also added in a goldveined cloaker which gave the PCs, particularly the party's paladin, quite a lot of trouble! Session write up to follow later.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 1:12 pm Post subject: Roots of Madness |
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Hi,
Here's what happened in last night's game:
Following the battle with the xorn and the fever-crazed dwarves, the PCs decide to rest. Bolval tends to Krivinn who has greed fever, while Ella ministers to Khuma. While Sharden is on watch, he hears a voice calling to him from the ventilation holes above the door to the south. The voice is that of Abelard the Fire Shepherd, the azer the party have been sent down here to find; he explains that he is trapped behind a complex mechanical door and that the gears needed to open it are missing. Will the PCs please help him get out? Sharden wakes up Ella who also asks Abelard some questions - the elf finds out that an elemental of stone and fire persuaded the fire elementals to abandon their posts after the dwarves caught greed fever, and that an old gearworker and his journeyman had been asking suspicious questions about the ventshafts and how they connect to the Shank which powers the mines. Abelard sent them off in the wrong direction deliberately.
16th Quintilis
Krivinn and Khuma both recover from greed fever. Heading out of the entrance chamber, the PCs explore the Hearthforges, looking for the missing gears they need to open the door trapping Abelard in the pockets of brutally murdered dwarves. The party search the storeroom (full of food supplies!), furnace chamber, cistern cavern, maintenance forge, kitchen, dining hall, workshops and the infirmary, finding five gears and the key handle to open the door. In the cistern chamber, Ella dives bravely down into the two wells, finding the bloated corpse of a dead dwarf, weighed down with iron bars, but no gears. The mutilated bodies in the maintenance forge freak everyone out – Krivinn and Bolval spend a bit of time rearranging the dead dwarves so they are at peace.
As the PCs search the dormitories, Krivinn grabs an old cloak hanging on a peg - unfortunately, this turns out to be a goldveined cloaker which immediately wraps itself around the dragonborn. The other PCs rush in to help, attacking the monster, but their attacks damage Krivinn as much as they do the cloaker. Krivinn escapes, only to become enveloped again and again. Sharden casts trumpet the star’s fall which complicates things by creating a zone of smoke. The dwarf invoker then charges in to rescue his comrade but ends up getting slapped by the cloaker’s tail and bloodied. Finally Krivinn gets out and stays out as the cloaker flees but Sharden’s grasping shards slows it down. Bolval finishes off the creature with lance of faith.
Having now found a sixth gear in the sleeping quarters upstairs, the PCs figure out the lock to the door holding Abelard prisoner and let the azer out. He thanks the party but tells them they need to hurry to the Ventshafts in case the would-be saboteurs have found their way there while he goes to round up the fire elementals.
Cheers
Richard |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 11:32 am Post subject: |
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You da man! Really enjoying this. Can't wait for Heartsblood Forge 
Quick question with my obsessive designer hat on: How'd gold fever infection and recovery go? Did it feel like a real (mysterious?) threat or was it over too quickly? I've not had a lot of experience with the 4e disease rules.
PS - You should send them down to the Howling City if you get the chance (or they get captured) 
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Dan Voyce wrote: |
You da man! Really enjoying this. Can't wait for Heartsblood Forge
Quick question with my obsessive designer hat on: How'd gold fever infection and recovery go? Did it feel like a real (mysterious?) threat or was it over too quickly? I've not had a lot of experience with the 4e disease rules.
PS - You should send them down to the Howling City if you get the chance (or they get captured) |
Glad you're enjoying reading the write-ups!
It didn't take the players long to suss out that the gold is cursed so they've actually not picked up any gold since they've been in the halls. My feeling about the mechanics is that it's very easy to get the disease but also quite easy to shake it off - pretty much every PC has had it for a day and got rid of it after their first extended rest with the help of a Heal check from someone else in the party. This isn't really a bad thing - just an observation. I must confess I have forgotten to penalize PCs with the disease with being stunned when they get bloodied every time this could have happened!
We play again this Monday so will report back
Cheers
Richard
PS good suggestion about the Howling City! |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:47 am Post subject: |
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Thanks, Rich!
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| Therabyd |
| Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Dan Voyce wrote: |
| You da man! Really enjoying this. |
Rich, I should have mentioned this before, but like Dan I've been enjoying this quite a bit myself. Between your writeups and Rev Rosey's PbP on Paizo, it's been fun to have little dollops of Halls popping up.
And happy birthday! |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| Therabyd wrote: |
Rich, I should have mentioned this before, but like Dan I've been enjoying this quite a bit myself. Between your writeups and Rev Rosey's PbP on Paizo, it's been fun to have little dollops of Halls popping up.
And happy birthday! |
Thanks! |
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