Sailors on the Starless Sea report
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 3:44 am
Session 1
I really enjoyed this session, our first after the party leveled to 1. First thing that happened was the Elf spellburned and rolled a natural 20 on his patron bond, so, that went well. (But see later on... heh heh heh.)
They encountered the vine horrors and made short work of them, thanks to some good initiative rolls. The party very quickly learned that warriors = good (+d3 to hit AND damage, using a longsword? one-shot vine horror). The Cleric used detect evil to great effect, and was alerted to the presence of the two beastmen in the gate house, so they looped around back. At that point he detected evil again and rolled a natural 20, so they were able to spot the avalanche trap, and the tomb of Felan. One character rolled well enough to spot a safe way up so I let them ascend following him, then they caused an avalanche (the Cleric was hoping it would seal up / destroy whatever was down there, but no such luck).
The tomb of Felan was a lot of fun... nobody thought to read the runes, two 0 levels were blown to bits by the fire trap. Then they spent some time with the ice... one character hurled a vial of holy water into the tomb. This was interesting, something not contemplated by the module at all. I made it cause a bright explosion that evaporated all the ice, but then the ice quickly crystalized again. I figured it needed to do SOMETHING, but the tomb is much more evil than the little vial is good. A 0 level managed to pry the axe free then failed his reflex save to try to get out, so I had him fall ON the axe... at that point we discussed the luck mechanic again, and between the 0 burning all of his luck and the halfling adding a bit, the 0 was able to avoid a grisly end.
After that, they looped some chain around the body and hauled it out of the tomb to try to get the armor, I had the body disintegrate completely after they pulled it out. They weren't impressed that it was just hide (though the chaotic warrior, a noble with a 3 personality [bastard son outcast], gave it a lot of thought), so they allowed the Cleric to burn it. While that didn't completely destroy the armor, it did render it useless/ruined.
They went back up and checked out the well very briefly... one char almost fell in and they quickly bolted from the well over to the chapel. Expecting some sort of Walking Dead inside, they chained the doors loosely then removed the bar, peeked inside. A brave 0 level explored in for a bit, nothing bad happened, so they opened the doors fully. One of the Thieves (or maybe the Elf) shot a flaming arrow into the pool of what they figured was oil, and it ignited... I figured the tar ooze liked this so it didn't reveal itself. Then they searched around inside, and discovered the censer (evil) and the incense (wrapped in evil cloth). Lots of Cleric freaking out about evil relics, others going "let's light it up, come on it'll be great guys!"
Somebody had the bright idea to get some water from the well and pour it into the fountain in the chapel. The 0 wandered off, failed his will save, and went into the well. (Later I realized he gets a reflex save to keep from completely dying, so as the night was wrapping up, we let him burn all his luck to survive... amazingly, he had JUST enough. He got a facial mutation on the table, so I ruled that he looked like the corpses from the American remake of The Ring, all distorted and pulled down. The party is probably going to kill him when he shows back up.)
I rolled to see if the beastmen realized what was going on, heard the avalanche, or whatever, and they did. But the halfling was wise to my tricks, and had positioned himself to watch the tower door about 10 or 15 minutes before that. So I ruled that he saw them running out the door, and the fight was joined. The Elf went for his patron spell, which is Jeet Kune Do (very similar to the Iron Fist patron spell posted by nerdwerds here earlier this week). Natural 1. Patron taint! I haven't even written it up yet. So I had him roll on the Three Fates patron taint list, he got the shadow self doing bad things that he has to go confront and defeat. Should be a hoot.
The champion got one swing off but the chaotic Warrior has a 16 AC, so he missed. Sigh. Next round the party's initiative won, and the Elf got off a sleep spell that took down the champion and another beastman... their will saves suck. Double sigh. That was all she wrote for the beastmen, as the party's initiative was good enough the following round to go first for most characters, and the rolls went well, so down went the champion and two beastmen - the remaining 3 fled on their initiative back to the tower, and that's where we stopped.
Thoughts thus far after playing with level 1s:
Magic, when you roll well, is po-wer-ful. I love it.
They're still not very savvy on the burning luck mechanic. I think they're getting there, though.
Mighty Deeds of Arms: nobody's used it yet. One Warrior player wanted to, but was like "I can't think of something to do." It may take a while. I may encourage them to come up with some default signature moves and give them a silly name. They did try to strike at the beastmen's weapons and arms and stuff, but missed.
Detect Evil is very useful, but I'm worried it's going to result in a TPK by the Leviathan because they won't think to use the censer, or they may destroy it. We'll see.
Really enjoying the module.
I really enjoyed this session, our first after the party leveled to 1. First thing that happened was the Elf spellburned and rolled a natural 20 on his patron bond, so, that went well. (But see later on... heh heh heh.)
They encountered the vine horrors and made short work of them, thanks to some good initiative rolls. The party very quickly learned that warriors = good (+d3 to hit AND damage, using a longsword? one-shot vine horror). The Cleric used detect evil to great effect, and was alerted to the presence of the two beastmen in the gate house, so they looped around back. At that point he detected evil again and rolled a natural 20, so they were able to spot the avalanche trap, and the tomb of Felan. One character rolled well enough to spot a safe way up so I let them ascend following him, then they caused an avalanche (the Cleric was hoping it would seal up / destroy whatever was down there, but no such luck).
The tomb of Felan was a lot of fun... nobody thought to read the runes, two 0 levels were blown to bits by the fire trap. Then they spent some time with the ice... one character hurled a vial of holy water into the tomb. This was interesting, something not contemplated by the module at all. I made it cause a bright explosion that evaporated all the ice, but then the ice quickly crystalized again. I figured it needed to do SOMETHING, but the tomb is much more evil than the little vial is good. A 0 level managed to pry the axe free then failed his reflex save to try to get out, so I had him fall ON the axe... at that point we discussed the luck mechanic again, and between the 0 burning all of his luck and the halfling adding a bit, the 0 was able to avoid a grisly end.
After that, they looped some chain around the body and hauled it out of the tomb to try to get the armor, I had the body disintegrate completely after they pulled it out. They weren't impressed that it was just hide (though the chaotic warrior, a noble with a 3 personality [bastard son outcast], gave it a lot of thought), so they allowed the Cleric to burn it. While that didn't completely destroy the armor, it did render it useless/ruined.
They went back up and checked out the well very briefly... one char almost fell in and they quickly bolted from the well over to the chapel. Expecting some sort of Walking Dead inside, they chained the doors loosely then removed the bar, peeked inside. A brave 0 level explored in for a bit, nothing bad happened, so they opened the doors fully. One of the Thieves (or maybe the Elf) shot a flaming arrow into the pool of what they figured was oil, and it ignited... I figured the tar ooze liked this so it didn't reveal itself. Then they searched around inside, and discovered the censer (evil) and the incense (wrapped in evil cloth). Lots of Cleric freaking out about evil relics, others going "let's light it up, come on it'll be great guys!"
Somebody had the bright idea to get some water from the well and pour it into the fountain in the chapel. The 0 wandered off, failed his will save, and went into the well. (Later I realized he gets a reflex save to keep from completely dying, so as the night was wrapping up, we let him burn all his luck to survive... amazingly, he had JUST enough. He got a facial mutation on the table, so I ruled that he looked like the corpses from the American remake of The Ring, all distorted and pulled down. The party is probably going to kill him when he shows back up.)
I rolled to see if the beastmen realized what was going on, heard the avalanche, or whatever, and they did. But the halfling was wise to my tricks, and had positioned himself to watch the tower door about 10 or 15 minutes before that. So I ruled that he saw them running out the door, and the fight was joined. The Elf went for his patron spell, which is Jeet Kune Do (very similar to the Iron Fist patron spell posted by nerdwerds here earlier this week). Natural 1. Patron taint! I haven't even written it up yet. So I had him roll on the Three Fates patron taint list, he got the shadow self doing bad things that he has to go confront and defeat. Should be a hoot.
The champion got one swing off but the chaotic Warrior has a 16 AC, so he missed. Sigh. Next round the party's initiative won, and the Elf got off a sleep spell that took down the champion and another beastman... their will saves suck. Double sigh. That was all she wrote for the beastmen, as the party's initiative was good enough the following round to go first for most characters, and the rolls went well, so down went the champion and two beastmen - the remaining 3 fled on their initiative back to the tower, and that's where we stopped.
Thoughts thus far after playing with level 1s:
Magic, when you roll well, is po-wer-ful. I love it.
They're still not very savvy on the burning luck mechanic. I think they're getting there, though.
Mighty Deeds of Arms: nobody's used it yet. One Warrior player wanted to, but was like "I can't think of something to do." It may take a while. I may encourage them to come up with some default signature moves and give them a silly name. They did try to strike at the beastmen's weapons and arms and stuff, but missed.
Detect Evil is very useful, but I'm worried it's going to result in a TPK by the Leviathan because they won't think to use the censer, or they may destroy it. We'll see.
Really enjoying the module.