I think I dropped the ball on this session as a DM and it’s mostly the same mistakes that I made with the first session, not volunteering information because I expect the players to either know the answer due to knowing me or because I expect them to ask me the question, which is perfectly fine with people who have played with me a lot or have played D&D for many years but not everyone assumes the same things that I do.
When we last left our heroes:
Aiken Drum had run through the crypt under the small church of Alune, he had the Evil Tome and ran straight to Higgins to get far away from the shadow demon that most of the party were fighting. The rest, apart from Grimbal who had been standing outside the crypt gripped with fear, quickly looted the room they were in and headed out to find Aiken and Grimbal. They all met up a little down the road to show Higgins that they had gotten the Evil Tome for the Abbot, Feanaro took the book and using his arcane magic he identified it. It was a fake! A simple book with an illusion based enchantment upon it to make it look like the original and give off a sense of unease and may even cause fear for those who held it too long.
This caused the party to question whether Son’ka Goldtouch had hidden the real book and why he was found clutching a fake and possessed by some fiend from below, had the book been a fake since the abbey? Did Son’ka plan to use this fake somehow. Should they even bother looking for it and just tell Higgins that it was real. At which point Higgins coughed and reminded them that he was standing right there, Grimbal made a joke that maybe they should just cut down Higgins and claim he died to goblins to the amusement of all but Higgins and Aiken who decided that killing Higgins would just make things simpler. Seeing that Aiken fully intended to murder the farmer to save time a number of things happened all at once, Feanaro leapt upon Aiken and despite his complete lack of physical strength managed to hold him long enough to prevent him from putting an arrow in Higgins.
Unsurprisingly Higgins ran for his life, Denny summoned forth the life giving magic of Groot to place a sanctuary spell upon Higgins as he ran, and for the most part the party ran after him either to kill him or knock him out or knock out Aiken. They caught Higgins and convinced Aiken not to kill him, only bind him so he couldn’t run and leaving him with Denny the party decided that they best finish clearing the crypt. I don’t feel bad about this bit because I had mentioned Higgins at least five times before he reminded them he was there as well as making it clear that talking amongst themselves about events in the game is generally in character, I also had Denny joining in on the conversation.
The second half of the crypt to Alune Goddess of torture was the “Path of the unrepentant sinner” and the portcullis was easily lifted once they spotted the leaver to open it. As you can imagine there were a lot of nasty abandoned rooms a bit worse than the other side with a lot of remains that had been left chained up. A few traps that were mostly avoided, sadly Grimbal found the pit trap, and there was very little of note apart from the ornate swanlike full plate armour and great sword. And Grimbal did defile a statue of Alune in order to steal the emerald eyes. Now I made two mistakes here, firstly while I gave plenty of descriptions so that the party went and poked every nook and cranny I didn’t mention how it appeared no one had been down there in a very long time as at the start I was expecting them to look for tracks or ask me about it and then I forgot to mention it since they were looking for Son’ka’s camp or belongings. Secondly while I like exploration I should have done a random encounter / wondering monster type thing because there was too much time spent exploring empty rooms without anything plot relevant/noteworthy treasure/evil thing to slay and I think it would have worked well. This is totally my fault because I expected them to either burn the book or take it back and leave the rest of the place unexplored / go through quickly since it is clear there would be very little treasure that wasn’t part of statues to the Alune.
So after fully exploring the crypt to the best of their abilities they went topside to see Denny and then looked around for tracks, they followed them to the lake where there was a small campsite a dead pony and a spot in the mud that clearly had a chest or something chest shaped before (roughly the size of the small chest they got off the goblins) with no sign of the real book they headed back towards the village of Blackwater. Deciding they didn’t want to swim round the wall that went out slightly into the lake they made for the gateway and found Mayor Donald on the ground being beaten by three heavily armed and armoured mercenaries who seemed rather angry that the mayor had given away half of their pay to someone else. These three backed down when Grimbal and Torvad made clear that they weren’t to be messed with, and they walked off towards the brothel with the second half of the money. Feanaro and Corwin helped the mayor up and feanaro felt so bad he gave him a healing potion to heal his wounds, Grimbal, Torvad and Aiken didn’t bother to hang around and went straight to “Borris’ Beauties” the brothel they had been thrown out of a few hours early for attacking a bouncer who threatened them when they were making a scene.
And so we come to the second major DM blunder of the night, as they enter the Brothel, Torvad who was being played by a guest player declares that he was going to walk right up to the table where he saw the three mercenaries and tip a pint over their heads. Peter who was a guest as Torvad later told me he was expecting to start a fist fight/classic bar room brawl type fight. Now while I did go “Are you sure?” I didn’t go “Are you sure you wish to start a fight with these clearly violent and heavily armed warriors in a place where early that day the party had been thrown out off for nearly killing a bouncer for doing his job and there is only half the party here and you haven’t rested so all spells are used and these guys clearly work for the Bloody Baron who runs this area and people aren’t going to want to piss him off” and I didn’t have them get up draw weapons and start swearing at them which would have given the rest of the party time to catch up but rather attack (Which to be far is totally in character for these NPC’s who were just beating a man almost to death less than five minutes early) and so a fight brakes out and I pull out my hourglass timer (which I got because it looks cool and covered in dragons) which thankfully was openly accepted as a sign something bad will be happening shortly.
The fight went badly right from the start with really bad rolls from Torvad, Grimbal and Aiken and by the time the other members of the party had arrived so had Borris and four others who joined in on the side of the mercenaries due to reputation the party had with them, now these guys weren’t trying to kill them but being outnumbered and unable to roll higher than a 7 really doesn’t help things. Feanaro and Corwin tried to shout over people and talk their way out of it and failed really badly (Again I didn’t offer advise such as maybe they should try and intimidate or offer some sort of bribe since no one fighting seemed to want to talk about their problems) after a whole load more really bad rolls (hey dice can be fickle sometimes) the fight ended with Grimbal bleeding on the floor, Aiken leaping out second floor window after giving one of the hostess a quick kiss and returning her stolen clothes, Torvad sprinting out of town, Denny and Higgins were told to stay away so never came close and Feanaro and Corwin left convincing Borris not to let the mercenaries kill Grimbal (With no healing magic available Grimbal had to make his Death Saving Throws and managed not to bleed out during the fight). Borris took all the coin and gems Grimbal had but leaving a fellow dwarf his weapon, he leaned down and whispered something but Grimbal was too winded to understand and no one else caught what was said. Borris gave a lot of Grimbal’s gold to “The Brothers” and let Feanaro and Corwin drag Grimbal out of town since they were clearly in danger if they stayed.
They camped outside and ended their first day as an adventuring party. Oh and Higgins had convinced Denny to let him go since the party might murder him and Denny isn’t very bright and won’t hurt anyone. Now the reason I didn’t volunteer any info is because I don’t like taking away player agency and when I do comment it is often an NPC commenting who may be wrong/have their own agenda/be bias/thick as shit because it’s generally more fun for the players to figure things out for themselves without too much nudging from me. The mercenaries would not have been a very hard challenge for the group if fought when they were beating up the mayor, but when fighting them with half of the party not there for the first few rounds in a relatively hostile place and a steak of very bad luck things can go bad really quickly.
Things we’ve learned so far for Team Awesome:
1: Goblins can actually be dangerous it’s best not underestimate them.
2: It’s best not to talk about killing someone when they are standing next to you (unless you plan to intimidate them)
3: When trying to start a non-lethal fight with heavily armed clearly cruel people don’t expect them to stick to non-lethal means.
4: Sleeping with prostitutes in a village with no healer will likely end up with disease saving throws.
5: You can die/beaten to the point of death and then mugged if things go badly for you.
When we last left our heroes:
Aiken Drum had run through the crypt under the small church of Alune, he had the Evil Tome and ran straight to Higgins to get far away from the shadow demon that most of the party were fighting. The rest, apart from Grimbal who had been standing outside the crypt gripped with fear, quickly looted the room they were in and headed out to find Aiken and Grimbal. They all met up a little down the road to show Higgins that they had gotten the Evil Tome for the Abbot, Feanaro took the book and using his arcane magic he identified it. It was a fake! A simple book with an illusion based enchantment upon it to make it look like the original and give off a sense of unease and may even cause fear for those who held it too long.
This caused the party to question whether Son’ka Goldtouch had hidden the real book and why he was found clutching a fake and possessed by some fiend from below, had the book been a fake since the abbey? Did Son’ka plan to use this fake somehow. Should they even bother looking for it and just tell Higgins that it was real. At which point Higgins coughed and reminded them that he was standing right there, Grimbal made a joke that maybe they should just cut down Higgins and claim he died to goblins to the amusement of all but Higgins and Aiken who decided that killing Higgins would just make things simpler. Seeing that Aiken fully intended to murder the farmer to save time a number of things happened all at once, Feanaro leapt upon Aiken and despite his complete lack of physical strength managed to hold him long enough to prevent him from putting an arrow in Higgins.
Unsurprisingly Higgins ran for his life, Denny summoned forth the life giving magic of Groot to place a sanctuary spell upon Higgins as he ran, and for the most part the party ran after him either to kill him or knock him out or knock out Aiken. They caught Higgins and convinced Aiken not to kill him, only bind him so he couldn’t run and leaving him with Denny the party decided that they best finish clearing the crypt. I don’t feel bad about this bit because I had mentioned Higgins at least five times before he reminded them he was there as well as making it clear that talking amongst themselves about events in the game is generally in character, I also had Denny joining in on the conversation.
The second half of the crypt to Alune Goddess of torture was the “Path of the unrepentant sinner” and the portcullis was easily lifted once they spotted the leaver to open it. As you can imagine there were a lot of nasty abandoned rooms a bit worse than the other side with a lot of remains that had been left chained up. A few traps that were mostly avoided, sadly Grimbal found the pit trap, and there was very little of note apart from the ornate swanlike full plate armour and great sword. And Grimbal did defile a statue of Alune in order to steal the emerald eyes. Now I made two mistakes here, firstly while I gave plenty of descriptions so that the party went and poked every nook and cranny I didn’t mention how it appeared no one had been down there in a very long time as at the start I was expecting them to look for tracks or ask me about it and then I forgot to mention it since they were looking for Son’ka’s camp or belongings. Secondly while I like exploration I should have done a random encounter / wondering monster type thing because there was too much time spent exploring empty rooms without anything plot relevant/noteworthy treasure/evil thing to slay and I think it would have worked well. This is totally my fault because I expected them to either burn the book or take it back and leave the rest of the place unexplored / go through quickly since it is clear there would be very little treasure that wasn’t part of statues to the Alune.
So after fully exploring the crypt to the best of their abilities they went topside to see Denny and then looked around for tracks, they followed them to the lake where there was a small campsite a dead pony and a spot in the mud that clearly had a chest or something chest shaped before (roughly the size of the small chest they got off the goblins) with no sign of the real book they headed back towards the village of Blackwater. Deciding they didn’t want to swim round the wall that went out slightly into the lake they made for the gateway and found Mayor Donald on the ground being beaten by three heavily armed and armoured mercenaries who seemed rather angry that the mayor had given away half of their pay to someone else. These three backed down when Grimbal and Torvad made clear that they weren’t to be messed with, and they walked off towards the brothel with the second half of the money. Feanaro and Corwin helped the mayor up and feanaro felt so bad he gave him a healing potion to heal his wounds, Grimbal, Torvad and Aiken didn’t bother to hang around and went straight to “Borris’ Beauties” the brothel they had been thrown out of a few hours early for attacking a bouncer who threatened them when they were making a scene.
And so we come to the second major DM blunder of the night, as they enter the Brothel, Torvad who was being played by a guest player declares that he was going to walk right up to the table where he saw the three mercenaries and tip a pint over their heads. Peter who was a guest as Torvad later told me he was expecting to start a fist fight/classic bar room brawl type fight. Now while I did go “Are you sure?” I didn’t go “Are you sure you wish to start a fight with these clearly violent and heavily armed warriors in a place where early that day the party had been thrown out off for nearly killing a bouncer for doing his job and there is only half the party here and you haven’t rested so all spells are used and these guys clearly work for the Bloody Baron who runs this area and people aren’t going to want to piss him off” and I didn’t have them get up draw weapons and start swearing at them which would have given the rest of the party time to catch up but rather attack (Which to be far is totally in character for these NPC’s who were just beating a man almost to death less than five minutes early) and so a fight brakes out and I pull out my hourglass timer (which I got because it looks cool and covered in dragons) which thankfully was openly accepted as a sign something bad will be happening shortly.
The fight went badly right from the start with really bad rolls from Torvad, Grimbal and Aiken and by the time the other members of the party had arrived so had Borris and four others who joined in on the side of the mercenaries due to reputation the party had with them, now these guys weren’t trying to kill them but being outnumbered and unable to roll higher than a 7 really doesn’t help things. Feanaro and Corwin tried to shout over people and talk their way out of it and failed really badly (Again I didn’t offer advise such as maybe they should try and intimidate or offer some sort of bribe since no one fighting seemed to want to talk about their problems) after a whole load more really bad rolls (hey dice can be fickle sometimes) the fight ended with Grimbal bleeding on the floor, Aiken leaping out second floor window after giving one of the hostess a quick kiss and returning her stolen clothes, Torvad sprinting out of town, Denny and Higgins were told to stay away so never came close and Feanaro and Corwin left convincing Borris not to let the mercenaries kill Grimbal (With no healing magic available Grimbal had to make his Death Saving Throws and managed not to bleed out during the fight). Borris took all the coin and gems Grimbal had but leaving a fellow dwarf his weapon, he leaned down and whispered something but Grimbal was too winded to understand and no one else caught what was said. Borris gave a lot of Grimbal’s gold to “The Brothers” and let Feanaro and Corwin drag Grimbal out of town since they were clearly in danger if they stayed.
They camped outside and ended their first day as an adventuring party. Oh and Higgins had convinced Denny to let him go since the party might murder him and Denny isn’t very bright and won’t hurt anyone. Now the reason I didn’t volunteer any info is because I don’t like taking away player agency and when I do comment it is often an NPC commenting who may be wrong/have their own agenda/be bias/thick as shit because it’s generally more fun for the players to figure things out for themselves without too much nudging from me. The mercenaries would not have been a very hard challenge for the group if fought when they were beating up the mayor, but when fighting them with half of the party not there for the first few rounds in a relatively hostile place and a steak of very bad luck things can go bad really quickly.
Things we’ve learned so far for Team Awesome:
1: Goblins can actually be dangerous it’s best not underestimate them.
2: It’s best not to talk about killing someone when they are standing next to you (unless you plan to intimidate them)
3: When trying to start a non-lethal fight with heavily armed clearly cruel people don’t expect them to stick to non-lethal means.
4: Sleeping with prostitutes in a village with no healer will likely end up with disease saving throws.
5: You can die/beaten to the point of death and then mugged if things go badly for you.