Today I was running the Wizards of the Coast adventure "H2 - Thunderspire Labyrinth". Our group mainly consists of inexperienced D&D players, only one (two if you include today's guest) had played before. One of them, myself, only has a bit of experience beyond this campaign. The other, the party's guest cleric today, has played many editions of D&D but this was his first time with 4E.
The party consists of Jigsaw, a tiefling war wizard that has dabbled in sorcery and revels in elemental powers, Ouran the dragonborn fighter who consistently asks if he can stuff peoples' heads in his mouth, and Balazar, a dragonborn paladin who makes light of his healing abilities and instead revels in the use of his breath weapon. Our guest today was Gyurgi, a cleric of Avandra who was captured by the Bloodreaver slavers. He bears a mark on his temple that no other members of the party know the meaning of (it is actually the mark of the Grimmerzhul duergar clan). Missing today were our Shifter Shaman Thorn, who is my character, and Eleana the eladrin rogue.
The party got into the Chamber of Eyes with a little trickery that ended up getting the goblin guards locked out of the Chamber of Eyes. Once they realized the door was locked, the paladin attempted to bash it down whilst the rest of the party engaged the goblins that had appeared on the balcony above. The fighter, always looking to engage in hand-to-hand combat, scaled the wall, while the cleric and wizard rained spells on the two goblin archers from below. After long, one of the goblins went down, but Ouran was finding out just how powerful a bloodied goblin can be. Meanwhile, Balazar had finally broken down the door, only to be confronted by two more goblins.
Balazar's cries for help echoed down the corridor, so, confident that Ouran could handle the one remaining goblin, the cleric sprinted towards the melee, while the wizard fired a shock sphere. There was a roar from the next room and a vicious bugbear came rushing into the fray, swinging his morningstar into the paladin. After a couple devastating blows, though, the cleric called on Avandra to strike the bugbear with thunder, and scare one of the goblins. Both fell soon after. The remaining hobgoblins were easy work.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Chamber of Eyes: Thoughts
My thoughts on the Chamber of Eyes, that I've done so far: My party handled the strategic element of it quite well, spitting up the fights strategically and choosing the back route, even if they didn't quite do it on purpose. They avoided the stone doors with the mark of the Bloodreavers on it. They still haven't figured out the mark I planted, which handily coincided with the guest appearance of an extra PC in the party. This mark on the temple of the cleric, which is supposed to be a branding that he received after being sold to the duergar. I plan to introduce those marks on the duergars' weapons when they reach that combat later in the Chamber of Eyes, in addition to on the Grimmerzhul Trading Post sign when they go back to the Seven Pillared Hall.
I'm having an ongoing experiment with how to portray rules situations in more than their straight rules formats. For example, I'd rather say, "The duergar's skin glows as your fire breath courses over him and it seems to have no effect. He has fire resistance," as opposed to, "Your attack only deals 3 damage. He has resist 10 to fire."
In addition, when it comes to the encounter with the duergar, I was thinking of modifying a couple of their powers. For example, I think the beard quills power is a bit silly. I was instead trying to make it a bit more demonic and menacing, enforcing that they were demon dwarves instead of just weird looking ones. I want them to feel a little different than "just another humanoid".
I'm also worried about them tactically neutering the last encounter of the Chamber of Eyes. This is one that I've always found to be a good one. The dire wolf, the double-levels with the archers, and the chief make a nice climactic fight with the reward of a couple rescued slaves at the end. However, if they come around from the way they are headed right now, it'll turn into a bunch of archers lined up, waiting to be destroyed. The dire wolf plays no role, and it's just boring. I'd love some advice on how to subtly steer them back on track.
Also, I plan to cut out the incriminating documents and replace them with other clues as best I can, because I think it's a little overused in the Wizards published adventures. Also, it makes the players feel better if they figure these things out for themselves.
Last point - I'm going to introduce Brugg the ogre on their next trip into town, and I'll also try to point an arrow towards Paldemar, the main villain of the adventure. Failing that, my goal will be to make them hate all of the slavers as much as possible - that way, when they find out Paldemar is behind it all, they'll hate him too. Since the people who live in Fallcrest were taken by these slavers, they have connections that they value. Any advice would be most appreciated.
I'm having an ongoing experiment with how to portray rules situations in more than their straight rules formats. For example, I'd rather say, "The duergar's skin glows as your fire breath courses over him and it seems to have no effect. He has fire resistance," as opposed to, "Your attack only deals 3 damage. He has resist 10 to fire."
In addition, when it comes to the encounter with the duergar, I was thinking of modifying a couple of their powers. For example, I think the beard quills power is a bit silly. I was instead trying to make it a bit more demonic and menacing, enforcing that they were demon dwarves instead of just weird looking ones. I want them to feel a little different than "just another humanoid".
I'm also worried about them tactically neutering the last encounter of the Chamber of Eyes. This is one that I've always found to be a good one. The dire wolf, the double-levels with the archers, and the chief make a nice climactic fight with the reward of a couple rescued slaves at the end. However, if they come around from the way they are headed right now, it'll turn into a bunch of archers lined up, waiting to be destroyed. The dire wolf plays no role, and it's just boring. I'd love some advice on how to subtly steer them back on track.
Also, I plan to cut out the incriminating documents and replace them with other clues as best I can, because I think it's a little overused in the Wizards published adventures. Also, it makes the players feel better if they figure these things out for themselves.
Last point - I'm going to introduce Brugg the ogre on their next trip into town, and I'll also try to point an arrow towards Paldemar, the main villain of the adventure. Failing that, my goal will be to make them hate all of the slavers as much as possible - that way, when they find out Paldemar is behind it all, they'll hate him too. Since the people who live in Fallcrest were taken by these slavers, they have connections that they value. Any advice would be most appreciated.
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