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lightnng
Memunite
(10/28/03 9:47 am)
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Did I screw up?
Im just wondering whether I screwed up our last session... the story is that three out of six players left, and three new players came in to replace them. With new characters, this changed the party makeup a little bit, so I decided to be a little careful.
Anyway, the (former) group had just cleared the main entrance - took em two sessions, a single assault each time, and cost them one death. Terrenygit had gotten away, and the previous session saw them going back to town to heal up, sell some junk (they sold all the regular items to the leader of the Orc band, with Yarew pocketing a 20% commission for arranging the deal) ended with them encountering the swordmaster.
I ruled that Terrenygit warned Uskatoth about the group, and so the earth temple forces were a bit more alert - that is, they pulled more of their forces in and buffed up a bit every day. Also, unlike in the module, Mikolak would not immediately interfere with the Swordmaster fight, preferring instead to watch and judge the party's strength.
It went like this; about a minute after they finished the swordmaster, the trogs from 231 and Greshta and her cronies (without invisibility - I forgot the potions :-( ) attacked simultaneously. Mikolak had already sent word to uskatoth that the party was coming, and was standing behind a bend in the north corridor as she was commanding the earth elemental to appear in the midst of the party in the swordmaster room. And since they were surprised, she got off a soften earth/stone spell making the room difficult to navigate (except for the elemental).
However, the party was barely damaged, so the battle wasnt difficult. They got hurt some, but not badly. When Mikolak realized the battle was going badly, she packed her heels and ran up to the temple.
The party cleaned up and followed. The manticore was a bit of a surprise, almost killing the wizard on her opening volley (I decided to be nice and only shot three spikes - all hit, and one criticaled, and wizard was suddenly at -5HP without even having a chance to react). Then the Rogue/Barbarian with boots of striding and springing managed to jump 20' in the air and slice the beast's belly open with a critical hit from his greatsword. I explained that at that point he was covered in Manticore entrails.
Next up was one of the mephits, but he didnt survive for long.
Which brings us to the main fight. I had Uskatoth and Snearak on the platform, Mikolak and Terrenygit on the ground by their sides, the Xorn ready to be commanded, all the centipedes, trogs and warriors at the ready, and the two other mephits hovering around the entrance. Another thing was that the party actually only had five characters at this point; character six - a dwarven cleric - was to be introduced as a prisoner of the temple, and he was chained to the western wall near the pyramid.
Anyway, all the priests were buffed up: endurance (which I judged had very little duration - a minute - left, as they had cast it in the morning), bull's strength, guidance, resistance, divine favor, magic weapon, magic vestments... pretty much everything they could use. Also their cronies were blessed/prayered/aided. The party was about 80% full on HP, out some spells, and only buffed up with Bull's STR.
Now, what I didnt think about was that the centipedes were faster than the trogs. What happened was that being mindless critters, they filled up the corridor between the main temple room and the party very quick, making it difficult for the trogs to get there. The mephits succeeded in summoning other mephits. Snearak cast soften earth to trap the party again, and the Xorn tunneled underground and appeared in their midst to cause some more havoc. But the centipedes, while effectively poisoning the sorcerer out of the combat (he got hit like 12 times, failed his save 3 or 4 times, and ended up having to "total defend" since his DEX and AC was down by quite a bit), were also a barrier for the major damage dishers for the earth temple.
The party's wizard webbed the room, then fireballed it once and then fireballed it again. While this didnt hurt the priests too badly - Uskatoth and Snearak had resist elements/fire on - it did clean a lot of the baddies. They hammered down the Xorn. Then the chained cleric managed to break free of his chains, use the lengths chains to kill the last trog standing (talk about lucky rolls!), and use one of the few spells he still had memorized to cast obscure mist and confuse Mikolak, who went searching for him.
Snearak failed to hold the party's frontline guy twice in a row, and when he finally got him, it was with the scroll and so for only three rounds.
It ended up with melee combat between the four priests and the party, they got Terrenygit first with alchemist's fire, Uskatoth - with AC 31! - FOUR times (Mikolak and Snearak kept healing him), and Snearak and Mikolak in due time.
The battle took three hours real-time to run, the party ended with everyone in the single digits for HP, no spells, about 20 charges down on their cure wands, and all their healing potions gone. Every character visited negative HPs at least once during combat.
And yet, I think I may have not been effective. The centipedes were obviously a weak point in my strategy that I didnt consider. And the priests... well, they werent that effective either at range. Snearak kept failing to hold, and although he did summon a couple of dretches, the party dispatched them posthaste. Could/should I have done better?
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Killiak 
Dynama
(10/28/03 9:51 am)
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Re: Did I screw up?
Sounds like a close, bareknuckle, teeth gritting battle
I think ya did fine, they will remember the fight 
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Lunus Quelnegarde
Memunite
(10/28/03 12:12 pm)
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Re: Did I screw up?
Sounds close, and remember, the enemies don't always have the best strategy.
Besides, there will be plenty more opportunities to have big battles like this later on. The party snuck away with a close one here? Maybe the water temple will beat em back a few times.
Anyways, it sounds like a really fun fight.
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Andorax
Cherub
(10/28/03 12:23 pm)
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Re: Did I screw up?
The only thing I'd have done differently is, especially due to the actual size of the centepedes (pretty dang small), I would have simply had them continue moving into the PC's spaces, taking 5' steps every round to avoid AoOs and mindlessly burrowing closer still into and amongst the party. IIRC, half of them are Tiny centepedes, and thus *had* to close to the same squares as the PCs in order to be able to attack at all.
"Whadda ya mean, Orcs get levels too?!?" |
lightnng
Memunite
(10/28/03 6:37 pm)
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Re: Did I screw up?
Yeah, it was a good fight... I guess I thought it would be difficult for them to actually beat the earth temple in one shot. Heck, Mereclar and his baddies ended up requiring two assaults!
As for the centipedes; have I misread the module? I thought there were 8 small and 8 medium ones, not any tiny ones. I played them as 2 small ones per 5' square, but they still filled up the corridor pretty darn quick.
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madfox
Cherub
(10/29/03 12:22 am)
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Re: Did I screw up?
It has been some time ago that I read that part of the module, but my understanding was that the centipedes where not controlled by the troglodytes. They were just part of the furniture in an area that was filled with vermin like in the Indiana Jones scene. My players removed all vermin with a simple sound burst spell. In any event, it was a close fight and the players must have had the feeling they would die at one point or another. There is nothing wrong with a close fight. When in doubt, remember Andorax's mantra: "The PCs are the heroes, they are supposed to win." And above all, also remember, that most players really need big victories once in a while or they will become disgruntled with the campaign.
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 Infiniti2000
Cherub
(10/29/03 6:21 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: Did I screw up?
In any case, a Small creature must be in a square of its own to fight effectively. I think it was okay to use the centipedes like you did, though. And, you did a fine job during the combat. So what if the bad guys don't use their best tactics?
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Vampus Souldrainer
Kalkydrite
(10/29/03 1:36 pm)
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Re: Did I screw up?
Did everyone at the table, including you, have fun? If the answer is yes, then you didn't screw up. Remember: fun is the reason why we play.
I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning - especially when there's a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can't find the exit. I need food badly.
What type of video game character are you?
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arcane12
Memunite
(10/29/03 6:19 pm)
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Re: Did I screw up?
I had the insects as kinda follower pets of the trog in the room - the description leads you to feel they are drawn to him and his magic.
Actually a note on that description - I did not like it and had to catch myself and quickly paraphrase it - it mentions the earth temples head cleric by name?? Why couldn't it just read "...drawn by the lure of the evil magic pervading the room." or something?
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Siobharek 
Cherub
(10/30/03 2:45 am)
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ezSupporter
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Screw up? Naah... And desc. text.
As the others say: Sounds like a good battle, many near deaths from your description.
And speaking of descriptions. Part of the shaded tecxt for the centipede room shouldn't be shaded. It's in the errata 
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