Session 25 - Scene 5 (of 7)

Larrak hauls the dead kobold body into the pantry and they all move back into position, seeing if they can pull the same trick twice.  Tiberius is given the kobold's knife after Krolec explains he can't lend out one of his swords because he will need them soon; Tiberius is less than happy at the decision.  

After no one comes in for a minute or two, Tiberius begins yelling, demanding food.

After that gets no response, Krolec listens at the door.  It's quiet.  He carefully opens the door a little, seeing the empty kitchen beyond.  He sneaks on into the kitchen, with the others following slowly behind him.

A fire roars in the kitchen fireplace.  Food has very recently been prepared here.  The room is not closed off by walls, but opens up into a larger front hall.  The remains of a long crumbled statue separate the areas to the east.  Along the northern side is a wall that gradually goes away to reveal it is the side of a large stairway leading to the upper level of the keep.  Back over in the northeast corner of the hall, Krolec spots a trap door in the floor; Krolec assumes it must lead to the lower levels of the keep.

Krolec can hear a lot of commotion going on from the other side of the stairway.  He sneaks out a little further to get a better look.  As he suspected, it is a large dining area, where two more cooks are serving a group of eight kobold soldiers and their dragonshield commander.  

Back in the kitchen, Tiberius is looking around for any trace of his weapons / armor.  He is disheartened to spot his oil flasks, empty, sitting on the kitchen counter.  The crazy beasts must have used them for roasting rats.

Ever careful, Krolec scans the area for any other threats.  Looking up, he sees the stairs actually lead to a mezzanine overlooking the main hall and part of the kitchen and dining areas.  And on that mezzanine are a group of five kobold archers and their dragonshield commander, with their arrows ready to fire.

Before he can react, Krolec sees flaming arrows shoot down onto Tiberius, Leigh, and Challa.  Just as Tiberius spots a small cabinet door under the stairway, he is hit by a flaming arrow.  Leigh is hit twice, the arrows burning her underneath her magic robes.

The dragonshield bolts up from the table and rushes over to Krolec, stabbing him once with his sword.  Krolec uses his powers of evasion to avoid the two cooks that charge in as well.  

Challa immediately reacts by calling for her on pain of death prayer against the dragonshield.  She then yells for everyone to move back into the abbatoir for a more tactical position.  As she heads back, however, she gets a nasty surprise when the door breaks down in front of her, revealing two giant spiders.

Session 25 - Scene 6 (of 7)

Tiberius rushes over to the cabinet under the stairs.  As he has hoped, his armor and weapons are stored inside along with other miscellaneous junk.  He grabs his things and quickly heads over to the corner behind the fireplace, trying to get some cover.

Sensing the group has been outmaneuvered into a trap, Leigh decides not to waste any time.  She immediately fires off her fireball spell, hitting most of the kobolds in the main hall and dining area.  The two kobold cooks and three of the scouts are instantly charred.  The last of the kobolds, the skirmishers, survive the blast and rush out of the dining hall towards the others.

Leigh then turns and casts a rolling thunder spell at the spiders, blasting them back into the abattoir room.

Using his bow, Krolec uses his shadow wasp strike maneuver to fire two arrows into the dragonshield in front of him.  To Krolec's side, Larrak chops down a kobold scout in front of him with his axe then rushes over and puts his axe into the dragonshield's heart with a brute strike.  Larrak is covered in blood as the creature howls in pain and falls over, dead.

Seeing that Krolec and Leigh are the more dangerous targets, the archers turn their attention on them, hitting them each with an arrow.

Challa decides to go after the nearest skirmisher, but misses with her righteous smite.  She then calls out a hallowed circle, hitting one of them.  Behind her, the two spiders move in to attack.  She narrowly avoids being knocked down by one and slides away from the other before it can bite her.

Back in the corner, Tiberius manages to get his armor on.  Ready for battle, he moves behind the spiders, flanking them.  He calls out an inspiring word to Challa.

Leigh decides to focus on the archers.  She blasts the group of them with her shock sphere, hitting three of them and their commander.  She then puts up her fire shield for defense.

Out in the hallway, the skirmishers surround Larrak, hitting them with two of their spears.  He tries to attack back, but misses with his crushing blow.

Krolec, however, has more luck.  He hits a spider with his adaptive assault then fires off another set of arrows, killing the creature.  The archers respond by firing at Krolec, hitting him twice.

Challa makes an ardent vow, then charges ahead with a valorous smite, striking down the remaining spider.  With no spiders left to kill, Tiberius charges up the stairs, taking on the dragonshield commander.  After his axe is blocked by the kobold's shield, Tiberius summons the power of his armor to give him stoneborn vitality.

Leigh uses her scorching burst to blast at the archers above her then uses a jump spell to position herself back near the front of the main hall.  Krolec makes a tactical retreat to move over by her, taking a moment to recover himself.

Back in the middle of the hall, Larrak is speared by three of the skirmishers.  He strikes back with a covering attack.

At the top of the stairs, the dragonshield and Tibeirus battle in mortal combat.  The kobold fails to penetrate Tiberius' armor.  Tiberius responds with a bastion of defense maneuever.

The archers decide to focus their fire on Challa this time, hitting her with three arrows.  Challa then rushes up the other side of the stairs, attacking one of the archers.

Leigh turns her attention to the skirmishers surrounding Larrak, hitting two of them with a scorching burst.  Krolec tries to help as well, hitting one of the kobolds with an arrow.  The skirmishers pay them no notice, stabbing at Larrak and again piercing his armor three times.

Larrak attempts to attack back, but fails.  He takes a moment to regain his breath.  The accumulating wounds are beginning to affect him.

Back at the top of the stairs, Tiberius fends off another attack from the dragonshield.  His own attack also fails, despite his inspiring war cry.  The archer next to Challa drops his bow and draws his sword, stabbing her.  The other archers fire on Krolec, hitting him once.

Challa takes a moment to steel herself from the wound then channels her divine strength.  Back below, Leigh fires off another scorching burst at the skirmishers, killing one of them.  Krolec hits another with an arrow.

The skirmishers thrust at Larrak again, hitting him once.  Larrak then makes a cleaving strike with his axe, cutting off two of their heads in a single blow.  His victory is short-lived, however, when the archers turn their fire on him, downing the dwarf with their arrows.

On the mezzanine, Challa fights off another of the archer's sword attacks and cuts him down with her counter attack.  Tiberius likewise fends off the dragonshield captain and maneuvers the creature into a position where Challa is able to strike him down as well.

Leigh returns her focus on the remaining archers, hitting three of them with a scorching burst.

Nearby, the surviving skirmisher charges at Krolec, spearing him in the side.  Krolec responds by making a point blank shot through the creature's eye and into its brain.  The kobold falls to the ground near the comatose Larrak, who continues to bleed on the stone floor.

The archers fire at the nearby Tiberius, hitting him once.  Challa strikes one of them down with her bolstering strike while Tiberius heads in the other direction.  The warlord grabs an archer and hurls him off the side of the mezzanine, crashing him to the ground below.

Leigh finishes off the remaining two archers with a scorching burst.  Challa then runs halfway down the stairs then jumps over to the fallen kobold, slitting his throat.

Session 25 - Scene 7 (of 7)

With all of the kobolds dead, and the hall covered in blood, Krolec heads over to Larrak and manages to stabilize him.  Once Larrak regains consciousness, everyone rests for a min.

When the subject of what to do next arises, Challa and Larrak find they have very different opinions and begin to argue.

Larrak argues they must either press on or retreat to go rest.  Challa thinks pressing on would be suicide, but that leaving the hall would only allow the kobolds to regarrison.  She argues for trying to rest up inside the hall, which Larrak rejects as being too dangerous.

While the two argue, Krolec goes over to examine the trap door in the hall.  It is unlocked, but he spots that it is trapped to fire off something when opened.  He carefully disables the trap in case they want to head down there.

Larrak continues to assert that it is not safe to stay in the keep, as the wizard (or whatever else) responsible for the ice wall is likely down below and can come up and attack them in the night.  But after more discussion, the group decides to temporarily barricade the trap door and make sure the upper levels are clear first.

Krolec sneaks up the stairs, heading up past the mezzanine to the second set of stairs that lead into a hallway on the upper level.  It appears to be empty, and has four doors.  Once Krolec determines the closest door is untrapped, Larrak bursts it open, explaining that stealth is pointless after the massive battle they already had.

Inside the room are simply the remains of an old bedroom.  Nothing but an old bedframe can be found, along with some ratty old blankets that must have been used by the kobolds for sleeping.  Krolec carefully uses his sword to make sure nothing of value (or danger) is hidden under the blankets.

The next three rooms appear to be the same.  After Krolec checks outside the doors and windows to make sure the yard is clear, the group heads upstairs to rest for the night.  All of them wonder, however, if whatever is below will actually let them rest...

Session 25 - Session Notes

Things got back to normal with this session, which is basically now where we should have been last session.

The beginning with Tiberius' misadventure was planned since the start of the last session, when Tiberius and Scrag foolishly went off on their own.  We all had a lot of good laughs at Tiberius' expense.

The big wall o' ice was added for more foreshadowing.  I want the group to worry a little about who they are dealing with.  Note that I did make the wall a lot taller and wider than the PC spell actually works, but I did use the same HP for the wall and the cold damage the PCs took.

In the DMG, the dungeon levels are described but the upper sections of the keep are not.  I came up with the quick design of the lower level keep myself.  The abattoir was added to make the journey inside more ominous (everyone thought for sure it was Tiberius' blood).

The big battle royale had been planned for a while.  I added the spiders at the last minute because my players always try to make for the dullest combats ever by always trying to fight one enemy at a time and I didn't want them to barricade themselves into the abattoir room.  Besides, it gave a great "oh shit!" moment as they realize that they stumbled right into another trap.

The battle was long and quite bloody, with nearly every daily power used up, most healing surges used up, and every PC in danger of death at one point.  Granted, my recalibration of the encounter on the fly (partially because 2 players didn't show up) ended up with a battle that was technically "too hard" for the group.  But they survived anyhow.

So, now I have a big decision.  Do I let them rest?  Letting them rest might make the game more fun from the standpoint that I don't end up with mass PC deaths.  On the other hand, it really hurts the old immersion if I don't have a good reason why the remaining enemies don't move in for the kill.

I do have one thought - the big bad emerges, but will retreat back below when bloodied.  They can then take time to heal up (but of course, so will it).  That might still be too dangerous, although the other 2 PCs might be back by next time so maybe that will work out just fine.

Session 26 - Cast of Characters

Krolec Jar'Bin - Elven Archer
Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Challa kri - Kalashtar Paladin
Durmindin - Wilden Shaman
Silas Ballard - Human Avenger

Session 26 - Scene 1 (of 5)

Durmindin meditates quietly in the forest. He is very uneasy about the feeling he is getting in the area. He also spends time lamenting the loss of vegetation in the forest caused by the group's battles (and Leigh's fireball in particular).

Eventually, he notices it is beginning to get dark and realizes he has been communing with the spirits longer than he intended. Durmindin then heads out to locate the others.

Picking up their tracks, he makes his way to the keep in the night. He sees the front doors appear to be closed, and can't spot any guards around.

The group's tracks seem to lead over to a drainage tunnel of some kind – he can see that a mixture of water and blood seems to seep from it. He thinks to himself that the others must have gotten themselves into trouble. Down at the end of the tunnel, he can see torchlight coming through from above.

The shaman decides the group must have entered the keep through the tunnel. Crawling his way through the tunnel, Durmindin makes his way to the end and pops his head up. Inside he can see the bloody abbatoir room along with the remains of a couple of dead giant spiders.

He pulls himself up into the room and looks around. There are two doors – one intact off to the side, and one that has been smashed out. Looking through the smashed doorway, Durmindin spots the kitchen beyond.

Durmindin cautiously steps out into the kitchen. He spots a couple of dead kobold bodies on the ground and sees that the kitchen heads out into a larger main hall. There appears to have been a larger battle there, as the area is covered in blood with many kobold corpses.

He decides to head back into the slaughterroom and check the other door before proceeding. To his surprise, it appears to be an empty old pantry room with a dead kobold stuffed in the corner. It appears to have an arrow through its neck. Durmindin recognizes it as one of Krolec's.

The wilden heads back into the main hall. He spots a large area with scorch marks and the charred remains of many kobolds. He also spots the heavily barricaded trap door in the corner. Durmindin deduces the group must have gone upstairs. He decides to find a small stone on the floor then throws it up, hoping to attract attention. He calls out to ask if anyone is up there.

Upstairs, Krolec, Leigh, and Challa all immediately hear the noise and wake. Looking around, they quickly notice that Larrak and Tiberius, who were supposed to be on watch, are not in the room. Krolec quietly moves out into the hallway, and doesn't see them there, either. Heading over to the stairs, he spots Durmindin below. He yells in a whisper for Durmindin to be quiet and get up to the others.

Durmindin does as he is told, but once he is upstairs questions Krolec about the need for being quiet. Krolec explains they have not had the time to clear the lower levels yet.

Krolec then looks around for evidence of what happened to Tiberius and Larrak. As near as he can tell, they left under their own power down the stairs but he's not sure what happened after that.

With no better plan for the moment, Krolec and Challa decide to take the watch while Leigh and Durmindin get some sleep. But just as the two are about to fall into sleep, an extremely loud crashing sound combined with a very loud roar can be heard from downstairs – their barrier did not hold, and something is coming...

Session 26 - Scene 2 (of 5)

Everyone immediately readies themselves. The roaring sounds continues, along with the sounds of something large crashing its way up the stairs.

Krolec and Durmindin recognize the sound of the roar – it's from a white dragon. As Krolec recites what he knows about dragons, Durmindin moves towards the window in the room. Challa cautions him not to jump, as they are too high up and no one can outrun a dragon if they have broken legs.

Just then the dragon emerges into the doorway, using its arms to smash the doorway wider.

Challa immediately makes an ardent vow and attempts to attack the dragon with her righteous smite, but fails to penetrate its thick armor.

Leigh, however, has better luck and blasts it with a shock sphere. Krolec follows it up with his boar assault.

Durmindin summons his spirit companion and attempts to use his spirit of the hawk's wind spell, but fails. The dragon responds by blasting Krolec, Challa, and Durmindin's spirit with an icy blast from its mouth. It then lets out a loud roar that chills Challa and Durmindin to the bone.

Just as all seems lost, out in the hallway a figure emerges from his strategic hiding spot. He moves to the side of the dragon and slices into it, giving it his oath of the final duel. Challa and Durmindin do not recognize the man, but Krolec and Leigh do – it is Silas Ballard, the avenger of Erathis.

Krolec gives Silas a questioning look, and Silas gives him one in return that suggests there is an explanation, but no time to give it now.

Leigh proceeds to blast the dragon with her magic missile as Krolec jabs another arrow into it using his shadow wasp strike.

The dragon, however, turns to focus on Silas. The beast makes several attacks with its claws, but only manages one hit across his arm. Silas gives his oath of enmity, and attacks the dragon back with an overwhelming strike.

Gathering her nerve, Challa strikes at the dragon herself, hitting it with a virtuous strike. Leigh follows it up with another magic missile.

Krolec attempts to hit the dragon with an evasive strike, but misses. Durmindin re-summons his spirit companion and uses it to strike at the dragon with a thunder bear's warning. The strike seems to miss its mark until a quick prayer from Silas gives it the divine guidance it needs to strike home.

Bloodied and bruised by the attacks, the dragon lets out a howl then turns and flies down the stairway into the main hall and down into the large hole where the trapdoor used to be.

Session 26 - Scene 3 (of 5)

Rather than take the opportunity to rest, Krolec leads the others in pursuit. He is worried about giving the dragon enough time to recover.

The stairs below the trapdoor lead into the first dungeon level. It appears to be a single room with a large pool of glowing green goo. After quickly making sure the dragon didn't try to hide in the pool, Krolec leads the others into a side hallway, following the tracks of the dragon. They pass underneath a raised portcuillis and beyond to another set of stairs leading down.

The second level below is a long, wide room with several crypts and small alcoves with statues. On the far side of the room, one corner is a raised dais with an altar to Tiamat on it, while the other has yet another stairway leading down. Krolec suspects the room may be trapped, and tries to ascertain where the dragon stepped while heading through the room.

Since the floor is stoned, there are limits to what his tracking ability can do. Since he can't be sure exactly where to step, Krolec leads the group moves slowly. After narrowly being hit by a dart from one of the statues after setting off one trap, Krolec carefully identifies the pressure plates in the floor and safely leads everyone across to the stairway.

When the group reaches the third level underground, Krolec spots another series of crypts with another pool of goo separating them. He begins to wonder how deep the dungeons of Kobold Hall actually go. At the far end of the room appear to be a set of double-doors and a raised platform with a couple of chains hanging down near it.

Not sure what to make of the chains and platform areas, Krolec checks to make sure he is still on the dragon's tracks. He's quite sure the dragon headed through the double doors.

Krolec quietly advances over to the door and listens carefully. Behind it, he can hear the mutterings of a few creatures. He's pretty sure they are kobolds.

Very carefully, Krolec cracks open the door. He can see it leads to a short hallway with a large room beyond with a high ceiling. The center of the room appears to be a large miniature tower with kobold archers along its ramparts.

Krolec motions to Challa, who telepathically contacts him and gets the full information about what he can see. They decide to have Krolec sneak in a bit further to get more intel.

Hiding in the shadows, Krolec sneaks over to the right side of the hallway and peeks around to see the right side of the large room. There appears to be a large platform off of the side of the main wall. On the platform stand two kobold slingers standing to either side of a large boulder about ten feet in diameter.

After Challa telepathically contacts Krolec to get the information, she immediately warns him about going further in. She suggests heading to the left.

Krolec, however, wants to sneak in a little further first. Moving quietly over to the shadows of the tower, he notices the floor is rutted, as if to allow the boulder to roll along a certain path. The rut appears to lead down from the platform and around the tower area in a circle.

Challa gets this information and changes her strategy – they should breach the room and head immediately to the right to attempt to neutralize the threat of the boulder first.

Krolec continutes to head in. Moving around the corner of the tower, he spots a set of double doors that appear to lead inside the tower. The doors have draconic markings on them, suggesting the dragon may reside inside.

Krolec and Challa begin to put a plan into motion. Krolec will try to sneak in over to the boulder area while Silas with follow.

Krolec makes his way to the upper right corner of the tower while Silas sneaks past the hallway and over towards the tower.

But their luck does not hold. As Krolec begins moving over towards the north wall of the room, he spots another platform along it – this one with a wyrmpriest guarded by a pair of dragonshields. It yells out an alert about the time the archers on the ramparts spot Silas.

Session 26 - Scene 4 (of 5)

Out of a small alcove in the west wall emerges a small spiretop drake. It flies straight for Krolec, but he manages to fend off its attacks.

Durmindin immediately moves into the small hallway and blasts one of the kobold archers with his wrath of winter. Leigh follows him and assists with a magic missile blast.

Over on the eastern side of the room, the kobold slingers react. One hurls a pot of glue at Silas, causing him to become stuck in place. The other activates a lever on the wall, causing the boulder to crash down and begin following the rut, heading straight for Silas.

Krolec switches to his swords, uses a hit and run attack to slice at the drake, and then rushes over and tries to knock the boulder off course, but he isn't strong enough to move it.

Over at the far end of the room, the wyrmpriest and her gaurds begin moving towards the west wall.

Back on the east side, Silas heroically tries to stop the boulder with his strength, but fails. Likewise, Challa's attempts to use her divine mettle to allow him to get free. The boulder eventually rolls over him, crushing his leg.

The archers on the ramparts fire at Krolec, Leigh, and Silas, missing them all with flaming arrows. Krolec is, however, the recipient of a vicious claw attack by the drake as it flies by him.

Durmindin attempts to fire at an archer again with his wrath of winter, but misses. Leigh, however, strikes him with her magic missile.

From the platform, the slingers fire more glue pots at Krolec, hitting him. He responds by switching to his bow and firing back, hitting them both with an arrow.

On the far side of the room, the dragonshields and the wyrmpriest continue to advance as the archers fire again at Krolec, Leigh, and Silas – still missing their targets. Over on the other side, Silas finally manages to free himself of the glue.

As the boulder moves past, Challa charges over to the east side of the room, but misses the drake with her virtuous attack. The drake responds by swooping in and clawing her face.

Durmindin calls forth his spirit of the healing flood, failing to affect the kobolds but allowing his allies to recover. Leigh, however, is able to hit one of the archers again, killing it.

She then rushes over to the west side of the room and blasts the priest and the dragonshields with her burning hands spell. The priest responds by blasting Leigh with an orb of freezing cold while the dragonshields move in and slice into her with their swords.

Just then, the slingers attack again, hitting Challa with more glue pots. Krolec tries to free himself from the glue, but is unable. Silas, free from the glue, stands up and moves over to the platform. He tries to attack one of the slingers with a blast of his radiant vengeance, but misses.

The archers then fire at Challa and Durmindin, hitting them both with arrows. Challa has to take a moment to recover herself while the drake misses Krolec with another flyby attack. Challa and Krolec then realize to their horror that the boulder has rolled back around to them, as it smashes into them both.

Durmindin decides to assist Leigh, using his spirit companion to strike out at one of the dragonshields with a spirit renewal strike.

With no glue pots left, the slingers hurl stones at Silas, missing him. Silas quickly moves over and climbs up onto the platform, slicing into one of the slingers with his sword. Down below, Krolec and Challa manage to free themselves.

On the other side of the room, Leigh uses her jump spell to quickly move away from the kobolds surrounding her. She jumps herself over to the north platform and blasts all three of them with a scorching burst.

Up on the ramparts, the archers fire at Durmindin, missing him with their arrows. Nearby, the drake flies over and cuts into Silas's arm as the slingers pull out their daggers and stab him.

Durmindin stays focused on the wyrmpriest, but his spirit companion misses with its protecting strike. Leigh blasts the dragonshields heading her way with another scorching burst. The dragonshields charge up the platform after her, but miss her with their swords as the priest misses Durmindin with an ice orb blast.

Krolec picks himself off the ground and fires his bow at a nearby archer, hitting him twice. The archers fire back at Krolec and Durmindin, but miss.

Nearby, Silas cuts into one of the slingers with an overwhelming strike. Challa stands herself up and charges up onto the platform, flanking one of the kobolds on Silas. She then strikes it down with her valorous smite.

The drake tries to do another flyby attack on Challa, but misses. The remaining slinger tries to attack Silas, but Challa's divine sanction kills him.

Over on the other side, the wyrnpriest blasts Durmindin with an icy orb as the dragonshields cut into Leigh. Up on the ramparts, the archers fire at Krolec, hitting him twice.

Challa readies herself for another drake attack, slashing it with a bolstering strike when it moves in to attack. Silas, meanwhile, assists Leigh by blasting one of the dragonshields with his radiant vengeance, killing it.

Durmindin uses his healing spirit to heal the wounds of Krolec and Silas. He then blasts at one of the archers with his wrath of winter spell. The wyrmpriest responds by blasting Durmindin with another cold orb.

At the north platform, Leigh blasts one of the dragonshields with her magic missile then uses her fey step to teleport a short distance away. The dragonshields continue to rush after her.

Krolec moves over to use the boulder as cover from the archers then fires off a couple of arrows at the drake, hitting it once.

Silas attempts to blast the other dragonshield with his radiant vengeance, but misses. Next to him, Challa steels herself for another drake attack, but neither end up penetrating the other's defenses.

Durmindin takes a moment to catch his breath as Leigh runs from the dragonshields, blasting one of them with another magic missile along the way.

Krolec worries the group is too weak to continue fighting. He fires two arrows into the drake then begins making a strategic withdrawl towards the room's exit.

The dragonshield continues to advance on Leigh in the north part of the room while the wyrmpriest inches closer to Durmindin in the south. Silas fires his radiant vengeance again, killing the remaining dragonshield.

Challa is hit by one of the archers as she prepares herself for another drake attack while following Krolec's retreat. As it swoops in, she cuts it down with her axe.

Durmindin uses another healing wind to heal Leigh and Challa's wounds. Leigh then fires off a scorching burst on the archers, killing one of them. From the hallway, Krolec kills the another with a couple of shots with his bow.

The wyrmpriest fires off a cold orb at Challa but misses. Silas uses his angelic alacrity to advance over to the priest, slicing into it. He follows it up with an overwhelming strike, chopping the creature's head off.

With the kobolds dead, Krolec quickly orders a full retreat as he is still worried about the dragon attacking again. The group will need to risk resting and taking on the recovered dragon.He leads everyone back upstairs, where they once again resume resting, this time in a different room, hoping this time to make it through the night.

Session 26 - Scene 5 (of 5)

Far away in an underground chamber, the images of the sleeping group can be seen in the magic reflecting pool. As the observer watches from behind a large curtain dividing the room, he hears someone coming down the hidden stairs.

The dark figure moves down the stairs and into into the room. Wearing dark robes, only the faint outline of his face can be seen in the dark chamber from the soft glowing light of the pool.

A high, raspy voice comes from behind the curtain, "Your plan failed. They've breached the final chamber and killed his priest. In the morning Szartharrax will surely die."

The man in the dark robes responds in a deep, cold voice, "Perhaps. Though I wouldn't count out a cornered dragon just yet, you know as well as anyone how dangerous that can be. In any event, I hope you aren't going to declare victory prematurely. Szartharrax is simply my first line of defense. Still, I congratulate you countering with the avenger like that; I didn't realize he was still in play."

The voice behind the curtain responds, "There are a great many things you do not yet realize. You are not the only one with multiple lines of defense to your strategy."

The man in the robes smiles, "Naturally. I am eagerly anticipating your next move..."

Session 26 - Session Notes

Once again, I had a smaller group for this session and it just works so much better.  Actually, even when I end up with my least favorite group of players (which is pretty much this session), I notice that I have a much better time with a smaller group.  There truly is a magic number to get RPGs to work "right", at least for me.  I just don't have nearly as much fun playing/running the games unless the number is between 4-6 players.  Anything more, or less, just doesn't seem to click right - 3 players feels like trying to play 8 man football while 7 or more always feels like a UN meeting.

Anyhow, numbers aside the game worked out pretty good this week.

I knew the Durmindin player would be back this week, but I wasn't sure about the Silas player (who has never shown up consistently).  The Tiberius and Larrak players canceled at the last minute (which also means the Scrag player missed since he only comes with his dad, the Larrak player).

So, I gave the Tiberius and Larrak PCs a mysterious disappearance (which I will have to explain somehow later) and had to introduce the Silas PC a mysterious entrance (again, which I'll have to explain later).  The Silas character actually showed up at the tail end of round 1 of combat, so it worked out very nicely.  Now I just have to come up with some crazy story to explain it all (and preferably one of the ones where I tie everything together so it looks later like I planned everything to work that way from the beginning).

I had been planning the half-encounter with the dragon since last session.  It made the most logical sense - threaten the players while avoiding killing them.  For this battle, I used the base level 3 stats for a young white dragon.  Sadly (for them), the final battle will used the customized stats I made for the level 8 (!!!) Szartharrax.

The original point was to throw the PCs a bone - make them earn a reason to rest without interruption for 8 hours (since the dragon was wounded, he'd have to rest, too).  In practice, they decided to chase after the thing.

Careful readers will note that I am using the Kobold Hall layout from the DMG.  However, I did not actually bring the DMG with me to the game and couldn't quite remember how it all fit together.  So, the descriptions of the rooms I gave the PCs as they headed down don't quite match the write up (though no one will notice - except maybe the Tiamat altar because that's something I completely forgot about at the time).

The battle with the wyrmpriest and his minions was quite exciting.  I scaled the fight down quite a bit from how I originally planned it to avoid killing everyone.

Interesting note - the PCs did not stop even long enough after the dragon fight to recover their encounter powers.  That was a first.

My favorite part was the slingers with the glue pots combined with the boulder.  That was a lot of laughs (at least, for me).  We used the Silas player's d100 on our battlemat to represent it.  Probably the only real usefulness the thing ever had.

Next time we'll finally get to the final dragon battle and the ginormous amount of treasure found there.  I think I mentioned before that the pile of treasure constantly grows because the PCs gain levels faster that I can dole out treasure parcels.

Which brings me to a couple points:
1. I think PCs gain levels too quickly.  I'm sure the players would disagree, but it is a pain just trying to keep up with what abilities they have.  There's no time at all to just stop and enjoy the level - it takes maybe 4, 5 sessions before they will level again.

2. Treasure parcels suck.  They aren't as half-baked as skill challenges, but I don't think they are ready for prime time yet either.  For one thing, its actually quite difficult to give out that much treasure every level if the PCs are constantly gaining levels.  The cash part is kind of difficult - the magic item part is nearly impossible.  Every other battle the monsters would have to be chock full o' magic items.

Session 26 - Session Notes (part 2)

Almost forgot to mention my notes on "Scene 5", which was actually emailed out to the players after the session as an epilogue.  I like to add little cut scenes here and there to flesh out the story and add suspense, but always over email so they don't interfere with play.

The epilogue was inspired by a combination of the "Management" character from the tv show Carnivale with the season 4 finale opening scene from the tv show Lost.

That the PCs are a group being manipulated by outside forces for their own purposes is one of my standard campaign themes, which I also used in my Rifts campaign.

This time, instead of incredibly powerful cosmic forces, their manipulators are basically epic-level types.  And the biggest reason for that is I have no intention of dragging it out indefinitely.  The eventual idea is that the PCs will become powerful enough that they will figure out what's going on (and what's at stake) and take it from there.

I have kind of a general idea where the campaign will go for the next dozen sessions or so and where I expect the PCs to be at by the time they hit paragon level.  I want to make sure that by the time they get there, there will be a clear difference from where they started at as far as how the campaign world looks.

Session 27 - Cast of Characters

Krolec Jar'Bin - Elven Ranger
Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Challa Kri - Kalashtar Paladin
Durmindin - Wilden Shaman
Silas Ballard - Human Avenger
Larrak - Dwarf Fighter
Tiberius Enchilada - Human Warlord
Scrag Graveborn - Half-Orc Warden

Session 27 - Scene 1 (of 11)

One week ago...

After being forced to move out of the temple, Silas decides to do some soul-searching.  After thinking things over, Silas decides to give up his life of adventuring to marry and settle down with his childhood sweetheart, Lady Abigail.

Silas then devotes himself to starting a family and trying to help out around town.  A few days later, he was doing his usual charity work at the local soup kitchen for the indigent of the city when a messenger shows up.  Just as Silas was in the middle of discussing how several regulars had stopped showing up recently with another volunteer worker, the messenger comes over to Silas and hands him a note from the High Septarch, asking for an immediate audience.

Wondering what the old wizard could possibly want to talk to him about, Silas goes over to speak to him.  There, the High Septarch tells him of his studies of the stars, and that he foresees great danger to the city if Silas' former allies do not succeed in fighting the dark forces surrounding Kobold Hall.

Silas decides he has no choice but to help.  He explains to Lady Abigail that he will need to resume his adventuring career, at least until all threats to the city are gone.  He then gets some supplies and heads out to Cloak Woods, hoping to find the others.

Session 27 - Scene 2 (of 11)

Yesterday Afternoon...

While heading towards the castle, Scrag loses sight of Tiberius.  While attempting to find him, he spots Krolec a short distance away.  Krolec motions him over.

As Scrag gets closer, he realizes Krolec is wearing the wrong clothes.  Before Scrag can do anything, the Krolec look-alike blows some sort of powder into his face.  For Scrag, everything then goes black.