# Truename's DM commentary on Scouring of Gate Pass



## Truename (Feb 3, 2010)

SPOILERS ahoy! (And players in my Portland game, stay out!)

My players and I just started playing WotBS 4e last week and I'm already enjoying it a lot. I've liked Durn's and others' reports of their experiences, so I thought I'd share mine as well. I intend to focus more on what's worked well and not worked so well from the DM's perspective.

The characters, along with their DMG p.8 archetypes:

Cwndydd (SOON-duth), an Eladrin Hybrid Swordmage/Paladin. Her player enjoys system mastery and creating optimized characters.
Keothi, a Goliath Warden. I'm pretty sure her player is a Watcher.
Aspetra, a Deva Artificer. Her player is a Thinker.
Khansi, a Warforged Assassin. Its player is a hard-core Instigator.
Volk, a Goliath Barbarian. His player is probably closest to Slayer, with Instigator tendancies.
Theren, an Elf Druid. His player leans Storyteller.

Our previous game was Scales of War, and we played it for a year and a half, through to the end of the Heroic tier. The players enjoyed it a lot, but I got bored. Most of them were looking forward to playing Paragon tier, so they were a bit disappointed about the idea of starting a new campaign. We compromised by agreeing to come back and play the highlights from SoW as a pure beer-and-pretzles beat-em-up. It should make a nice break from the intensity of WotBS.

For most of the players, my game is their first significant RPG experience. SoW is a combat-centric game with minimal roleplaying, so the roleplaying aspects of WotBS are new to most of them. SoW is also heavily railroaded, so choices with meaningful results are pretty foreign as well.

I've emphasized that the strength of WotBS over SoW is its freedom of choice and role-playing elements, and the players have dived in. They've all created interesting character backgrounds and personality aspects and they're making a real effort to stay true to their character identities at the table. I've provided each with an individual background sheet that gives inside information (gleaned from the campaign guide and first two modules) that's unique to each PC. Most of them have also read the Player's Guide thoroughly--several actually gave an impromptu lecture on how Gate Pass fits in politically with Ragesia and Shahalesti tonight. 

In terms of house rules, we're using three major house rules:
1- Everyone has a "Do Something Cool" at-will power for stunting. It provides 1[W] damage (or equivalent) and a minor effect.
2- Everyone also has a "Do Something Awesome" encounter power. It provides 2[W] damage and a minor effect, or 1[W] damage and a bigger effect.
3- A fate point system inspired by Spirit of the Century, where people can tag/compel character aspects to gain advantages/disadvantages. Fate points are a superset of action points.

And off we go! I hope you'll share your suggestions and ideas along the way.


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## Truename (Feb 3, 2010)

*Session 1*

We played the first session last Tuesday. It was pretty much by the book. I did mix scenes 1-1 and 1-2 together using flashback vignettes--we started with the combat, and then after every round, I flashed back to the PCs meeting each other. There was a great moment (worked out in advance with Theren's player) where I described a great ram bursting through the window and knocking a thug to the ground, which had everyone flabbergasted until they figured out we were introducing one of the players.

The flashback system worked very well considering the situation. Everybody's new to player-to-player roleplaying, so it was fairly awkward at first. Having the roleplaying vignettes mixed in with combat allowed me to bounce back to the comfortable, familiar combat mechanics.

That said, there wasn't a whole lot of introductory roleplaying, and the players ended up punting on how to escape Gate Pass. Mostly, I think it was a sense of awkwardness about the roleplaying and unfamiliarity with the campaign. They kind of decided to try to convince the mages at Gabal's School to help them escape, but didn't go much further than that, and didn't ask Torrent any questions about what she knew.

They managed to capture Kathor during the fight--they routed the thugs easily, then surrounded him before he could get away. He surrendered without a fight. There was a nice scene where Cwndydd, the Paladin/Swordmage rescued the unconscious thugs. (All of the enemies were knocked out rather than killed.) Then they decided to let to let him go after a bit of questioning, and getting him to agree not to follow them.

They thought Kathor was just a bounty hunter of no consequence, so it will be fun when they meet up with him again.  I've decided that their honorable behavior has improved Kathor's attitude to "Indifferent," and that he'll repay his perceived debt by warning them away from the Gauntlet encounter. They'll have a chance to turn him to their side entirely in that scene.

Then we went through the city scenes, which went over well, and ended at the Depository. The sense of urgency worked well in those scenes and they didn't stop for another short rest, despite taking damage, and also spurned Corian, Kiki's owner.


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## Truename (Feb 3, 2010)

*Session 2 (Scenes 2-1 and 2-2)*

This was a neat session. It dragged in parts, but the player's choices in this one should reverberate. They've also managed to go way off the rails of the plot. 

A bit of background: in prepping for this session, I decided that Larion was a misogynistic and cruel, but experienced, fieldworker who resented Shealis and her silly decision to send a talkative Solon on a covert mission. He wishes to supplant Shealis and take over as head of the Gate Pass operation.

I've also decided to play the Shahalesti as a very fey race, with Jim Butcher and _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_ touches. So the fey are subtle and dangerous. Tie in Cwndydd, whose player has gone along with this characterization full bore, and we have the recipe for some intrigue.

So before the session, I prepared some notecards. I decided that, if the players managed to capture Larion, that he would try to make a fey bargain with the players. Of course, the best fey bargains are like _The Monkey's Paw_--dangerous and destructive. 

To make it even more interesting, I decided that Larion would address the Shahalesti character in "court eladrin" that only an eladrin would speak. To simulate this, I handed Cwndydd's player prep-prepared notecards rather than talking. I created bastardized versions of the card for those that spoke elvish.

Here are the cards:


```
Card 1:                                 "Translated" Card 1:
Agent of Winter, perhaps we can         Cold Servant, I give to thee what thou
exchange favors.                        give to me.

Card 2:
I will tell you the location of the     Three for three, binding in law. I give
case, the name of its possessor, and    the queen and her scepter, and a boon yet
will grant my assistance with one       shared.
other thing, which I will tell you
before we are agreed. I ask three
boons in return.

Card 3:
First, agree not to speak of my terms   Lowest, share not thine tongue an they
to anyone, unless they are present      also share it with thee, lest the donkey
with us here and have similarly         cry.
agreed.

Card 4:
Second, release me and promise no       Middling, let me and my children, and my
retribution for my actions here         children's children, fly free.
tonight.

Card 5:
Third, you and your companions kill     Highest, smite the queen, who holds the
she who ordered me here, and who now    scepter.
possess the case.                          The boon yet shared is a wasp, hiding
  When you do, my third boon is this:   amongst the drones.
I will strike from behind,                 Agree, now!
unsuspected, and aid you in the
attack.
  Are we agreed?
```
They did capture Larion, who told the Solon to return home, and then made his offer. This is the part that dragged a bit, because several players didn't have anything to do while the eladrin considered his cards and what to do next. But eventually they all understood the deal and, to my utter amazement, they accepted the bargain! I made a big deal about them ritually shedding blood, and warned them that their agreement was magically binding, but they agreed to it in an instant. Only one person balked.

I had Torrent express discomfort with the idea of murdering someone, but she eventually went along with it too.

I have to admit, this surprised me. On the other hand, I think it's a good way of introducing that their decisions have consequences early. I'm going to play up Shealis' willingness to discuss giving them the case when they meet her. And if they back out of their agreement--well, then there's Monkey's Paw-style results that can come along later.

In retrospect, I think it's because they knew the Solon was a good-aligned creature, and they thought the Solon was with Larion (rather than Shealis). I had them roll an Insight check when the deal was done, and they did well, so they saw a flash of "mouthful of jagged teeth" in Larion's smile when he left... that left them a bit uncomfortable with their decision.  When they meet Shealis, I'll be sure to convey that Solon is Shealis's familiar, not Larion's.


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## RangerWickett (Feb 3, 2010)

Man, you put a heck of a lot of effort into that. Sounds very cool. And my inner language geek went all smiley at your cards.

Please, keep it up.


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## Burchard (Feb 3, 2010)

In the event that my PCs don't slaughter Larion and decide to interrogate him, I'm totally stealin' your idea!

I just printed up a page for the Court Eladrin speakers (we have one eladrin in the party), a page for elvish speakers (we have two) and a page in elvish script for the non-elvish speakers (we have two). If it comes to this, it would be great!


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## Daern (Feb 3, 2010)

Great stuff!  I was really worried my players were going to want to follow up on the "Singing Chasm" escape route so I made a whole plan for that in case they get too friendly with the Eladrin.  

The theme of sketchy high elves is definitely one of my favorite parts of WOTBS and I like how it carries through in #2


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## Truename (Feb 3, 2010)

Durn said:


> Great stuff!  I was really worried my players were going to want to follow up on the "Singing Chasm" escape route so I made a whole plan for that in case they get too friendly with the Eladrin.




My players perked up when they heard about the Singing Chasm and started talking about using that to escape the city. What was your plan?



> The theme of sketchy high elves is definitely one of my favorite parts of WOTBS and I like how it carries through in #2




Yep.  From reading the campaign overview, I get the impression that the players get to choose their favorite nation in a future adventure. So I'm going to make them all morally grey.


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## Daern (Feb 4, 2010)

Hmmm, I can't find my notes, but I think I basically planned to use the "Travelling Through The Mountain" skill challenge from DMG2 and prepare a couple delve style encounters.  Travel through a Fungus Forest would be cool.  Myconids would preview the Myconids in WOTBS#2... I was thinking that they could encounter Duergar at the exit who might make an offer similar to the Dwarves as written in the module, a sort of hostile negotiation with a superior force... (maybe steal the fortress from Thunderspire Labrynth!)  
All that stuff requires level adjustments, but I like to tinker and mix-n-match with published material.
Also, it might be a good opportunity to throw in some references the Trillith deep beneath the earth...


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## Truename (Feb 12, 2010)

*Session 3 (Scenes 2-3, 2-4, and 2-5)*

Well, that was a surprise.

I expected this session to be fairly uneventful. After last session's intrigue-heavy (and somewhat poorly-paced) content, I thought some nice, unambiguous beat-downs would be fun for the players without being a lot of work for me. Nothing went quite like I thought it would.

First, Flaganus Mortus. I thought the players would try something creative to save the baby, but they were feeling a bit squirrely, or something. They didn't believe Flaganus's threats, and taunted him: "Go ahead, kill the baby. You'll be the next to die." You know what happened next.

I played up Torrent's reaction afterwards a bit, describing them as finding her with tears streaming down her face, saying, "I couldn't save him. Maybe that's what Lee meant... I focus too much on fighting, not enough on saving."

The scene at the temple went pretty well. I ran the Mulysa encounter and Cwndydd "defused" it by first trying to complement her--she just lashed out verbally in response--and then by slicing the strings of her lute with his sword. I had the teens come in at the same time and start harassing her. Cwndydd interposed himself and Mulysa slouched away, muttering "no house, no lover, no lute... I guess I have everything I need now."

The roleplaying stat blocks I made in advance really paid off in this scene. There was some free-form roleplaying and I felt like I knew exactly how to respond. I think Mulysa's final comment hit home for the players that these characters aren't just two-dimensional antagonists--that their motivations run deeper than "give the players an obstacle to overcome."

For reference, here's the stat block I used:

*Appearance:* Dark-haired, dark-skinned female half-orc
*Voice:* Rough, angry
*Key Traits:* Grieving, miserable, lashing out
*Goal:* Misery loves company
*Motivation:* House bombed, lover missing
*Fears:* What comes next
*Weaknesses:* Passive aggressive, socially inept

Finally, we played the warehouse encounter. I started by playing up Torrent's concerns with the party--a few of them stumbled into the meeting at the Poison Apple, and one of them is Cwndydd, the eladrin that negotiated the fey bargain in our last session. I took two of the players aside and had Torrent tell them that she didn't trust the others and feared the fey bargain had involved them in something dark and dangerous. She was going to go scout out Gabal's school on her own, and wanted the party to do the warehouse mission as a sort of test.

The encounter itself... well, the party is the victim of bad editing and my rushing, unfortunately. The encounter is marked as being 1,200 XP. I have six players, so I added another guard and bandit (275 XP) to balance it. Unfortunately, that took this from a N+3 encounter to an N+4.5 encounter. When we stopped, we were well on our way to a TPK.

You see, the actual encounter budget is 875 plus two 100xp pit traps (which my players avoided). So the correct scaling factor should be one extra monster, not two. If I hadn't been rushed, I would have noticed that adding one PC shouldn't add two new monsters, but I was doing it on the fly during the game. Add in some bad tactics and some very bad rolls, and we've got one PC down, the leader out of healing, two other PCs on the ropes, and the two heavy hitters split off from the party. It's not looking good.

I think a big part of what's going on here is my players are still used to the consequence-free railroad of Scales of War. They're not taking the world or its characters seriously and they're stumbling into all kinds of problems as a result. That's even true of the warehouse encounter. In SoW, the adventures followed a very predictable difficulty curve--throwing in a really hard fight as the first fight of the day just wouldn't happen, at least not until the adventure's climax, and they underestimated it.

The good news is that I think they're starting to notice, and I think they'll realize that they can't just be a bull in a china shop. The game will be better as a result.

As for the TPK... if there is a TPK, I think I'll have the terrorists knock the PCs out and summon the Black Horse to come deal with them. Kathor will recognize them and free them out of a sense of reciprocal duty. They'll have a chance to talk with him and win him over to their side at the same time.


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## Daern (Feb 12, 2010)

I think taking them hostage is a great idea.  They can wake up having been bought by Kathor...


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## Truename (Feb 17, 2010)

No session this week because I'm sick. I'll have to wait until next week to see how the PCs get out of this one...

(I came up with some neat post-TPK stuff that I'm looking forward to trying... the PCs will be taken hostage; there will be some banter between the bad guys that will provide clues, some rituals, and of course the always classic "you two redshirts go and fix the broken door and look for the beast [Druid] that got away". I'm thinking they'll find him. )


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## Truename (Feb 24, 2010)

*Session 4 (Scene 2-5, 3-2, 3-3)*

My players continue to surprise me. I was convinced we were on our way to a TPK last session, but the dice turned and they pulled out a narrow victory. By the end of the fight, four of the six players had been dying at some point. One of them rolled a 20 and recovered, one of them had been healed, and two were still dying. Aspetra had a nail-biting moment where she had failed two death saving throws in a row and no one close enough to activate her second wind. Luckily, she made her save the third time, and was brought back the next round.

So all the cool TPK stuff I had planned didn't happen. No escape from restraints, no discovering the link between the Black Horse and the Ragesians. Instead, the players looted the place and then decided to go warn Erdan Menash of the plot against. Luckily, I had my RP stat block for Erdan prepared, as well as a couple of whimsical items. (My favorite was the sword cane with carefully placed holes that whistled a dirge when you drew the sword.) Here's the stat block:

*Appearance:* Extraordinarily fat human, moves with grace of a walrus.
*Voice:* High-pitched, wheezing.
*Key Traits:* Infectiously enthusiastic, easily distracted, unabashedly mercantile, savvy
*Goal:* Do what’s best for long-term
*Motivation:* Free trade, happy populous
*Fears:* Foolish council, invading army
*Weaknesses:* Out of options, ready to grasp at straws

I didn't do the skill challenge--I've always found RP skill challenges to feel forced at best, and high complexity ones (this one was supposed to be 8 successes before 3 failures) just don't have enough interesting elements to sustain the number of checks required. Instead, we just played it free form. I had a lot of fun with this--my notes on whimsical items plus the bulleted list of the events of the attack the night before gave me lots of things to throw in.

The PCs got here before escaping the city was a major concern, so they didn't ask Erdan about his help. I was nice and had him volunteer, after appropriate probing. I figured that they were generally nice to him, delivered the warning, and also killed the wyvern rider--that was enough of a success for me. He told them to visit Cpt. Harreman when they were ready to leave.

I also had Erdan probe for their destination, but they didn't trust him enough to tell him, so he didn't give them the Dianoem. I guess time will tell as to how much that matters.

The party druid noticed the ambushers from scene 3-3 on the way back to the temple. He told Volk, the barbarian (ostensibly in charge in Torrent's absence), who turned with a wonderful "What the f--- do you want!" rather than the subtle approach the rest of the party wanted. I gave him a Fate Point for that one. 

It was daylight and the party was able to cow the would-be ambushers, so they defeated that encounter without a fight. The encounter with Rantle went uneventfully, and they returned to the temple. We ended with them successfully assisting in the ritual to heal Rivereye. Next time, we'll start with Torrent's report of what she found at Gabal's School.

Here's Rantle's RP stat block. I didn't expect to need it today, but luckily I had done this one in advance.

*Appearance:* tall, dark-haired, roguishly handsome human. Goatee and greatsword.
*Voice:* Very slightly over the top “hero” voice
*Key Traits:* Scoundrel, self-absorbed, charming, defender of common man
*Goal:* Have party deliver letter to sister Katrina
*Motivation:* Genuine love for sister
*Fears:* Sister is in real trouble
*Weaknesses:* Overestimates himself

Overall, a fun session. It went much differently than I expected, but I knew the adventure well enough to roll with the punches. That was nice--there's enough background detail in WotBS that I feel like I can improvise when I need to. It's a big difference from Scales of War in that regard. It takes more studying, but the result is far richer. My players seemed to really enjoy tonight's session.


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## sfedi (Mar 3, 2010)

I think the Dianoem is important.
If you feel like you want them to have it, you have another chance with the Dwarves in The Chasm Gate.

After running Street Ambush, I realized I did it wrong. It's an encounter that should scream TPK and at the last minute Rantle would rush in to save the day.
That way, they could be thankful of him and that would be a good start for their relationship/frienship.

How did the meeting with Rantle went with your players? Did they agree to take the message to Katrina?


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## Truename (Mar 3, 2010)

*Session 5*

Session 5 (Scenes 2-6, 2-6-2, 2-7, 2-8, 2-9, 3-1)

This session had some pacing problems. It was all roleplaying, no combat. Some of the roleplaying dragged--I didn't get much sleep last night, and . I've noticed that a good night's sleep is the best predictor of how well a session goes; when I've slept well, I'm quicker on my feet and better able to respond to surprises.

Another problem was that this section of the adventure isn't very well laid out, and there's some inconsistencies in the editing. For example, the assumption seems to be that the players get the case (it's a major plot point in Fire Forest, with Kazyk), but the way the adventure is written, the default path (the skill challenge with Shealis) has her keeping the case, but promising to share its information later.

Finally, there isn't much combat in this section of the adventure. Shealis, as a level 10 controller, just isn't a fun combat encounter. The players would miss almost every attack, and she has more hit points than my entire party combined. And the encounter in the spy headquarters only happens if the players defeat Shealis in combat (unlikely) or fail the skill challenge (also unlikely, given the low DCs).

I think this section illustrates the biggest weakness of the WotBS 4e conversion: poor balance in combat encounters and skill challenges. However, it's a weakness I'm willing to put up with. Shealis would have been much better as a lower-level solo--she still could have been a difficult or even overwhelming opponent, but without the boring "you can't hit me" aspect.

Anyway, on to some specific comments.

I cut out Scene 2-6-1 (Dead Rising) because it didn't add to the plot and seemed cliche. (Also, my players asked me to accelerate leveling through the heroic tier, so I'm looking for encounters to cut.)

Scene 2-6 (Diogenes) went well. I played him as being quite bitter and jealous about Shealis, while still charming. They clued in and played him nicely. 

Scene 2-7 (Shealis) dragged. I skipped the skill challenge here (as I've said, I've never liked social skill challenges, and 8 successes before 3 failures is just too many for that sort of challenge) and just role-played. I had decided that Shealis had some fey politics that made her want to keep the case out of Shahalesti, so she was interested in bargaining. After testing the PCs for a bit, she offered them a bargain.

This is the part that dragged. They were very skittish about making another fey pact. Two of the players refused, the others went along. None of them were very interested in negotiating. If I were to do it over, I would make it less contingent on group consensus, and instead design the bargain so that each individual could accept (for an individual benefit) or decline. Eventually, they agreed, and Shealis took them to the spy headquarters to retrieve the case.

Scene 2-8 (Elven Ghetto Hideout) was uneventful because Shealis was with them. I hinted at Kurychek but saved him for later.

Scene 2-9 (Spy Headquarters) was a neat scene. As you may recall, the PCs had previously made a fey bargain with Larion to kill Shealis, and he was waiting at the headquarters. Everyone else had been sent away. He gave the group the signal and moved to strike... and they chickened out at the last moment. I had dropped a _lot_ of hints about how powerful Shealis was, including a blatant mention of her level in response to a monster knowledge roll, but it was still a near thing.

I'm very happy they didn't try to attack Shealis. She completely outmatched them, and there's no way it would have been fun with the amount of missing they would have done.

But once they decided not to attack, the session took a fun turn. Larion was sent to fetch the case and the artificer tried to subtly hint to Shealis that Larion wanted to kill her, but Shealis wasn't getting it--so the artificer spent a fate point, tagging Shealis' fey appreciation for subtlety.  That did it. Shealis told the PCs to pretend to attack so she could see Larion's reaction.

He fell for it and I had a nice little scene where Larion was "banished from Summer" and cursed to wander until he loved three times was loved three times in return. His hair turned red and fell out, and he fled into the snow.

After the group left the spy headquarters, I introduced Kurychek. I had a lot of fun roleplaying him, but the group had cleverly hidden away the case, so Kurychek couldn't tell they had it. They dismissed him out of hand and Kurychek went invisible. He's too fun not to bring back, but I'm not sure exactly how.

We ended with the group back at the temple, deciding how to escape the city.

All in all, a lot of talking. This session was supposed to be the big payoff for the whole fey/Shahalesti/case subplots and, although it had some good moments, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I asked my players about it afterwards and they were mostly okay with it, but I could tell it wasn't keeping their attention as usual.

If I had it to do over, I would have introduced some combat to break up all the talking, thus spreading the scenes over two sessions. But it was nice to see so much progress on the plot. The next few sessions have the climactic "leaving the city" scenes (since they already talked to Councilman Menash) which have some easy combat sequences.


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## Truename (Mar 3, 2010)

sfedi said:


> I think the Dianoem is important.
> If you feel like you want them to have it, you have another chance with the Dwarves in The Chasm Gate.




I dislike the whole Chasm Gate section of the adventure--the plot, skill challenges, and characters all feel contrived to me. So I'm probably going to skip it and just have a brief encounter on the bridge.

I saw hints that the Dianoem is important in Adventure 3, so I'm going to have Menash send it to Cpt. Harreman for the PCs in lieu of the treasure parcel described in the adventure. He'll have done his research and know that the PCs are heading to Lyceum.



> How did the meeting with Rantle went with your players? Did they agree to take the message to Katrina?




No problems. They thought "Katrina" was actually a fence, but they liked Rantle and agreed to do what he asked. The offer of immunity from the local thieves' guild (at least, that's how they took it) was a big draw, and they were interested in his offer to create a diversion at the wall, too.


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## Truename (Mar 10, 2010)

*Session 6 (Scenes 3-X, 3-3i, 3-4)*

No big surprises this session. It was paced very well and ended right on time. There was a nail-biting combat sequence that the players seemed to particularly enjoy.

We picked up with the end of Scene 3-1 (Bad News). The players had decided to use the Capt. Herremen route Erdan Menash offered them in Session 4.

As they left the temple, I had Kathor waiting for them. He felt a sense of obligation for how they treated him and his men last time, so he warned them of the Black Horse ambush. This was also an opportunity for the PCs to befriend Kathor. I dropped several hints that something was unusual about Kathor--the druid picked up that his raven was unnatural; the arcane users recognized it as a familiar; the goliaths who had been in Ragesia recognized his accent as Ragesian--but they didn't take the bait. They asked Kathor to reveal when and where the ambush would be, but refused to betray his comrades. So they made vague threats and that was that.

A little disappointing, but overall it's good my players don't pick up on every clue. It makes me feel that there's the right mix of easy and hard clues.

The Interlude scene (3-3i) went smoothly. I used this as an opportunity for them to get the Dianoem they missed when they first talked to Menash. They didn't think of pushing for the patrol to leave earlier, despite knowing an ambush was planned, so they won't have a chance to get the drop on the Black Horse.

Finally, the bulk of the session was taken up with the Scene 3-4 (Magic Mayhem) fight. This was a real nail-biter; the monsters seemed way overpowered for their level. Level 3 skirmishers with a 2d6+2 damage attack, 1d6+2 on miss, recharge 4, plus 1d6 for combat advantage? Multiple daze (save ends) powers? Yikes.

I played it as written, though, not having had time to review the combat before-hand. My players loved it. Three of the six characters were below 0 hp during the fight. The barbarian went down twice. Feris recognized them, and shouted to the others to do non-lethal damage, so that eased the tension somewhat. Also, Torrent was there and her healing made a big difference, although she was dazed most of the time and couldn't do much else.

Overall, although the fights have been much harder than their level indicates, that seems to be compensated for by the presence of Torrent and the "Do Something Awesome" bonus encounter power I provide, as well as the easy access to fate/action points that I provide. The druid tagged his 'loyal' trait with a Fate point so he could use the Heal skill on two characters with one standard action, for example.

Once they took down Feris, the surviving highwayman stood down and the storm mages tried to escape. I played them as impressionable young women, students of Feris. The players blocked the exits and the students surrendered. They begged not the 'guards' (the party) not to turn them over to the Inquisition. I played them as a bit naive: "Feris has us come with him as he goes around to various shops, where the shopkeepers give him money." The players took pity on them to the Resistance safe-house with the shop owner.

The interrogation of Feris went well, too. He was fierce in his opposition to the Ragesians, contemptuous of the Gate Pass citizens that wished to throw magic users to the wolves (as so clearly illustrated by the mob previously outside the shop), and disgusted with the PC's cowardice. I think he impressed the PCs. They agreed to let him go in exchange for a promise not to harm or steal from Gate Pass. They even gave him back the Staff of Storms I had included as treasure!

I liked the way the roleplaying and combat combined in this scene. My players loved the dangerous combat (Scales of War was getting a little easy for them) and the segue from combat to post-combat roleplaying was nice and smooth. The scene with the angry mob outside was a nice little touch--I particularly liked that it wasn't a full-blown skill challenge, just a bit of flavor. That combined with the students' fear of being turned over to the Inquisition and Feris' fierce desire to go down fighting to provide some great war flavor and remind the players how dire the situation was.

A good session.


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## sfedi (Mar 13, 2010)

Truename said:


> A little disappointing, but overall it's good my players don't pick up on every clue. It makes me feel that there's the right mix of easy and hard clues.



This.

I use myself that same criteria, and for other things other than clues as well.


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