Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Ancalagon wrote: ↑February 11th, 2019, 8:18 pm Emphasis mine.
I like this idea!

Good reading there, Arashi! Look forward to more as time allows.

It came to me in our last session (session 4) after Mark literally rolled his third nat 1. In. A. Row. The odds of that are damn near astronomical. Here's this PC whose primary deity is supposed to be Buone, known as "Lady Luck", and because of Mark's rolls the absolute worst things tend to happen to him. Why? Why is that? There's a power with the portfolio of misfortune. Has to be. But I don't have evil powers as recognized gods of the pantheon (those are the so-called "dead" gods) so it would need to be a more playful than sinister power. Why playful? Ah, sister. Hell, why stop at sister. Buone's twin sister, a bit envious that Buone is a major power, so she tries to thwart her sister's followers. Not out of malice or a desire to cause all adventurers to forever roll nat 1s, but as a game. Misfortune will end up being a minor portfolio, almost more of a side gig. Still working out the details of the power at this point, but she is coming for sure. The player's abysmal luck demands an in-game answer for the character's equally abysmal luck.

Session 04 - February 5, 2019

In which anything that could possibly go wrong for Callisto does, and then some...

When Alwyn volunteered to hang with the party for a while longer, their suspicion of Earl Carulli only grew. (The Earl has Eyes!) The brothers Giovanni and Callisto were left to work on a locked bronze door found in the tunnels and look after an unconscious Vissia while Sigfrido and Alwyn returned to Ravesoria to scrounge up some hunting dogs with which to track down the obese goblin, who had slipped away in the panic after Vissia had healed the gnoll. Also, because he had not told the Adjudicator about the Earl's presence, the village elder was about to get a dressing down. (Because you know, priorities and such.)

After the initial fight with Varrlair, and looking around the small underground structure, it was obvious that what looked like a mine from the outside was anything but. The walls were smooth and covered in ancient Trantoran (Ye Olde Englishe vs modern english, so easily translated). There was also a set of bronze double doors that evidenced no handle or lock, but would not budge. Callisto discovered strange writing over the door, and with Giovanni's help realized it was a simple word scramble. The walls of one room told the story of the mage Sabazio Lista, the driving force behind the founding of the Arcanyx in Trant-on-Sea. The writing on another room's walls detailed all the accomplishments of his 193 cycle (year) long life. They eventually managed to unscramble the words and spoke the resulting words, only to hear a set of clicks and the doors to swing open, revealing a burial chamber of some kind. The body of a man rested upon a stone slab in the center of the room, one arm holding a tome tucked against his side and the other wrapped around an ornately carved wooden staff.

I like to actually throw genuine puzzles and riddles at my players. It works best when an obstacle has to be overcome in a timely manner, but simple ones like this word scramble pop up fairly often. Sometimes the puzzle is mathematical, sometimes language-based, and sometimes its quite literally a hundred piece puzzle I picked up and then painted solid white before throwing at my players. But I digress...

Between the staff and the spellbook there were approximately 10,000 XP of experience waiting to be had by two 1st-level characters. But Paul and Mark looked at me, looked at each other, and promptly closed the doors again. You could see the gears turning. We're 1st-level and that's just too easy, Don would never make it that easy. My players know me so well. I tend to punish the greedy in gruesome ways. Or maybe not, since there were no traps, no wards, no nothing in this case. Reverse psychology.

Sigfrido and Alwyn in the meantime made their way back to Ravesoria. The village elder was pointed in his dislike of the Siyja'an church... of most of the churches for that matter, making the age-old argument of religion being corrupted by greedy, power-hungry men. Sigfrido at one point became so incensed when the elder dared to turn his back and walk away that he cast Command. The command being "grovel". 1 round later when the spell wore off and the elder realized what had happened, he basically gave the "you just proved my point" lecture. Sigfrido had went to give a dressing down to the village elder, some random insignificant peasant, and instead got himself smacked across the face with his own holy scriptures.

Oh, and because hunting on the land of nobles is frowned upon by anyone not given permission, the small village of Ravesoria had no hunting dogs that Sigfrido could demand the use of. Arbitrary ruling on my part, simply because I intend on making this 1 HD morbidly obese and self-titled "King of the Goblins" a recurring annoyance to the party. If I can find any logical means for him to slip away in future encounters, I absolutely will. Yet again, I digress...

When Vissia awoke from her exhaustion-induced slumber she informed Giovanni and Callisto that she would not be accompanying them any further. The violent, overbearing tendencies of Adjudicator Sigfrido was nothing that she wanted a part of, and that she would be making her way to the village of Portigliari to the north. Having said so, she took to her horse and left the brothers.

When Sigfrido and Alwyn did not return from their trip to Ravesoria, and having finished their inspection of Sabazio's tomb, they decided to head south to the village as well. They found the Adjudicator and the earl's man drinking it up like best friends in the village's only inn. They set about discussing their next move. Alwyn, of course, had finished his task for the Earl, and so would be heading for the capital at first light to report the outcome of their quest to slay Varrlair and his minions. The PCs decided to head north as well for the village of Portigliari, which was rumored to be having some kind of problem with spiders. Alwyn would travel with them to Portigliari, as it was on the trade road to the capital.

Because I like to remind the players of just how screwed up the world their PCs live within, there was a scripted, narrated event involving the rather graphic death of a serving slave by an Envoy (Paladin) of Hunstus (god of trade and travel) for daring to serve him "food not fit for a dog." (Yeah, "paladins" are definitely not lawful good in the world of Sunsebb!) Doing these kind of things is something of a test for the players, who definitely want to step in, as opposed to their characters who live in a world that basically shrugs its shoulders at such things. Like the rest of the patrons in the inn, they shrugged their shoulders and went back to their meal and conversation.

Callisto came across an advertisement posted on the inn's notice board by a sword-for-hire. The sword-for-hire, Onofrio, spoke briefly with Callisto about payment (1/2 share of spoils) and sweetened his offer by mentioning it would be a two-for-one deal, as his sister would be accompanying him and she was a fine cook, skilled at setting up and breaking down camps, etc. Callisto decided he wanted to test Onofrio's skill with a sword, so a sparring session in the inn's courtyard was arranged. Things went downhill quickly from here.

On the way out of the end he tries a "smooth" pick up line on Silinia, Onofrio's sister. Diplomacy check, please? Oh, is that a nat 1? Yes, it is. She's repulsed and its immediately obvious she really hates you for even trying.

Before the duel began, the game mechanics of a duel were discussed. All damage would be considered non-lethal. Flat of blades would be used in Onofrio's case, thrusts would be stopped short in Callisto's case. With two exceptions. Missing an attack by six or more would result in unintentional lethal damage, and a nat 1 would be a critical hit. With the mechanics fully established, initiative was rolled and Callisto won by a large margin. Even after factoring in weapon speed, Callisto landed a blow before Onofrio had a chance to take any action and... rolled a nat 1, his second in a row.

I use the expanded critical hit tables from Combat & Tactics. Location was determined, as well as effect. Onofrio was reduced to 1 HP and had a minor injury inflicted. While HP can be healed normally or magically in my system, injuries inflicted from critical hits are not healed by simple cure spells. They either take 10d6 days to heal naturally, with treatment, or must be healed by use of more powerful spells such as restoration, regeneration, etc. In the blink of an eye Callisto had rendered the party's prospective hireling ineffective in combat for the next 37 days.

Feeling bad for his utterly horrifying behavior, he went ahead and hired Onofrio and his sister, Salinia, anyways. It was obvious no one else was going to hire the man when he was no longer in top fighting shape, and a turning (month) or longer without pay would likely see them on the streets, unable to defend themselves in a kingdom on the verge of falling apart. So the party picked up camp attendant and a sword-for-hire that would be doing no fighting on their behalf for a long while but would be receiving a half-share.

During this time, Sigfrido had discovered a notice on the inn's notice board posted by the village elder, which was offering ten bronze pieces per goblin ear. The elder had obviously failed to mention that when he had first spoken with the party or dressed down Sigfrido earlier in the day. Incensed, Sigfrido saddled up his horse and set out on a hour and a half journey to Sabazio's tomb in the dark of night. Oh, how I love when PCs run off on their own. Such bad things tend to happen.

1-2 on 1d6 for a random encounter. Yep. I use two sets of random encounters. A traditional random encounter table, unleveled, and the old 2e Deck of Encounters. After determining there will be a random encounter, I make a roll for what type. 1-4 on 1d6, it's from the encounter table; 5-6, I get to draw a encounter card from the encounter deck suitable for the terrain and climate. In this case, it's an encounter card.

Sigfrido's journey to Sabazio's tomb to collect goblin ears is interrupted by panicked whinnying off the trade road, somewhere in the woods. Being a brave solo adventurer, he dismounts and investigates, only to come across Adria, a pegasus of all possible things, who has found herself the victim of a trapper's snare. Not being female, and not being an elf, poor Adria is not exactly calmed by the arrival of a human male wearing armor with a shield and flail in hand. It takes a bit of reasoning on Sigfrido's part, but he eventually convinces Adria to let him approach so he can free her. After doing so, Adria imparts a few words of wisdom to the Adjudicator and departs. At the time this was just some random encounter deck draw, but it will have interesting implications in the upcoming session.

Sigfrido eventually reaches Sabazio's tomb, collects his goblin ears and gnoll head and begins the trip back to Ravesoria.

On their way to Portigliari the following morning, I rolled for another random encounter, this time off my encounter table. It came up as a wild magic event. Since the Age of Darkness, Sunsebb has been wracked with random surges of magic. Usually they're pretty harmless. Sometimes they're not. I randomly roll for the level of a spell, then for a spell within that level, power it up beyond belief and toss it into the world. I never throw it directly at players. It's just something they witness that might have some minor effect on them. In this case, they spot the sky burning and roiling to the east as it coalesces into what looks to be a small sun. Oh, wait, that's not a sun, that's a damn fireball that's about a mile in diameter. It explodes, of course. It's far enough away that the party isn't instantly obliterated, but the shock wave is going to force Riding checks or be thrown from their horses. Everyone makes it except Callisto. Who rolls his third nat 1 in a row.

Okay, critical failure. He actually gets knocked out of his saddle and slams into a tree some ten feet away. Take 1d6. He has 3 HP left. They continue on their way only to realize the forest and fields to the east are burning and the wind is fanning the flames their direction. Oh, and a stampede of wildlife racing to escape the flames. They manage to outrace the wildfire and stampede. Random encounter over.

In Portigliari they find that Vissia has already accepted the job to deal with the village's spider problem and she's looking for, in essence, hirelings! As much as she might dislike Adjudicator Sigfrido, she hasn't had any other bites and so settles for hiring the PCs with plans to set off for the likely location of the nest come morning.

What they find in the morning is a makeshift earthen type home of some kind built into the side of a hill. Callisto does a little scouting, finds that beyond the front door is a room that looks like a combination kitchen and laboratory. He looks left and right, and reports back that it appears empty. Everyone enters. No one bothers to, you know, look up. Because spiders are never up. Spiders proceed to descend from the ceiling. It's not even supposed to be a difficult fight. Five 1/2 hit dice spiders that can only do 1d4 damage. Really, only Vissia and Giovanni, neither of whom can wear armor, should be at any risk.

Sigfrido ends the combat with 1 hp. No one else is harmed. Unexpected result, but that's how the dice roll some days. They find a second room off the third, a bedroom, along with a dead body laying on the floor in front of a doorway that opens into an earthen tunnel. They close the door for the time being so they can ransack the two rooms. Sigfrido and Giovanni go to inspect the kitchen/laboratory, and Vissia and Callisto check out the sleeping quarters.

Callisto discovers an unlocked chest under the bed, opens it to find a BOOM! Yeah, fire trap. (I don't level my encounters, dungeon crawls, etc, so throwing a 3rd-level 6d4+6 spell at a 1st-level PC... that's par for the course for me. Poor choices have consequences.) Saves for both Vissia and Callisto are called for. He successfully saves, taking half damage, which comes out to 9 points. He's out cold, whats left of his clothes smoldering, and missing some hair. Vissia... well poor Vissia fails her save, and takes the full 18 points. She is quite dead. No hope of saving that one at -12 HP.

Poor Callisto... he just can't catch a break, it seems. He's injured his own hireling, ticked off the hireling's sister, been thrown from his horse into a tree with considerable force and now just triggered a fire trap that killed Vissia. Can it really get any worse? Oh yes, I am absolutely certain that it can...

Paul/Giovanni's Session Log
Dillon/Sigfrido's Session Log

Session 05 - February 12, 2019

Just as most television serials give a episode title to each installment, I often do the same with sessions when sending out texts reminding players of the upcoming game session. This one was aptly titled "It's a Somber World After All."

Mark/Callisto's incredibly bad luck had me working on details of a new minor deity whose portfolio would include misfortune. Taking a cue from the extensive family dynamics of the pantheon of Greek gods, I decided to make her the twin sister of Buone, the goddess of luck and patron deity of adventurers. In the process of detailing this new power, Ixris, I found myself consulting my notes for Buone and came across a bit of text that I had completely forgotten about. It seems I had listed unicorns and pegasus as creatures closely associated with Buone, ways in which she would sometimes manifest her presence in the prime material plane to show her favor to adventurers.

And I had drawn a encounter card from my old AD&D Deck of Encounters titled "Damsel in Distress" the previous session which involved a pegasus named Adria who had become caught in a hunter's snare. This posed an interesting opportunity that I had been looking forward to exploring in this session. But that came later...

The PCs headed north from the strange hovel they had finished exploring after Giovanni had looted several boxes of alchemical reagents that had been discovered and Sigfrido had doused the interior with fuel oil and set it ablaze. Sigfrido was torn between trying to discover who had posted the job notice Vissia had taken (the offer had not survived the blast that claimed her life) and starting the journey north that would take them into more settled lands where they might find a Temple of Axsyn (god of life, death, underworld, etc) to have Vissia properly interred. On the one hand, he was suspicious that Vissia had obviously been given sufficient information to lead them directly to the location of the spiders, and the earthen hovel, and he believed (correctly) that there was more to this job. On the other hand, he was set on seeing Vissia off properly.

Onofrio and his sister Silinia, their most recent henchmen, offered to return to the village of Portigliari, claim the bounty on the five spiders they had killed and investigate the source of the job, promising to meet back up with the party in King's Bridge in a hand's (week's) time. Seeing as the PCs were already on a strict schedule of reaching the Ducean stronghold of Sky Tower in eight days time, this seemed a sound compromise that would achieve both goals. Of course, I had my reasons for splitting their new henchmen off... to force them to make a even tougher decision at a later time.

The headed north towards the town of Padua, a day's ride away and only an hour from the southern walls of the capital city of Trant-on-Sea. Throughout the afternoon they began to encounter dozens, then hundreds of refugees fleeing south on foot, in battered and broken carts and wagons. At one point, Sigfrido was warned that the organization known as the Ledger had placed a bounty on the heads of any Siyja'an clergy and officials. The Ledger is the capital's equivalent of a thieve's guild, though it is modeled more closely on la cosa nostra -- the italian mob -- than more traditional thieve's guilds I've seen in most campaigns. They are much loved by the common man and woman in the "Low Districts" of the capital, provide soup lines, shelter, and protection from overzealous city watch and the like, a pray on shopkeepers who are not necessarily deemed "commoners". There was a lot of dire news that this individual could have passed on to the PCs about the situation to the north, and my players are usually really good at asking questions, but in this case they blew on past the meeting after Sigfrido reluctantly removed all symbols of his faith.

An hour's ride south of Padua, and well after dusk, they were luckily met by a scouting party of Baron Zelkia's men returning to the baron's estate. They brought the party dire warnings and an offer to accompany them back to the baron's estate for rest before continuing on, stating it was the only remaining place of safety in the region. This time they asked questions and discovered that the chaos was no longer limited to the capital. It had spilled out into the surrounding lands and at least two of the three towns closest to the capital were in the process of being looted and pillaged... and far worse atrocities. Most of the men of the three barons who had tried to form a blockade around the capital in an effort to prevent exactly this had been killed. The Low Districts of the capital had fallen into sheer chaos, and now it was spreading into the countryside.

The PCs wisely took the baron's men up on their offer of shelter. The baron himself would meet with them for a late meal and explain the current situation in greater detail. He expected his own estate to fall within the next day or two, but would make a stand rather than flee and abdicate the responsibilities he had been given by the deceased king.

That night Sigfrido was unable to sleep, tossing and turning with nervous energy. He had a strange feeling that he was supposed to go somewhere, though he could not discern where. He did however feel as if he knew how to arrive at this mysterious destination. He chose to let this feeling guide him, believing it to be the will of his god, Siyja (god of law and justice). After leaving the estate on foot (to the horror of the guards) he traveled aimlessly for nearly an hour before finding himself alone in a lightly wooded area and coming upon a clearing where a young girl plucked at a lute and sang a song he had never heard before.

During my re-reading of notes regarding the major power Buone, I remembered she had a scion -- a demigod -- named Castanea. As Sigfrido approached this odd sight of a young girl alone in the woods he was startled by the flapping of wings and the thud of hooves behind him. Adria, the pegasus he had resuced in the previous session, had swooped in and landed behind him. The girl introduced herself as Castanea, priased the compassion he had shown in freeing Adria, and stated that Lady Luck owed him a boon. He had but to ask, and if it were in Buone's power, it would be granted.

From a DM perspective, I've always felt these kind of opportunities to be risky. Sigfrido wanted to put off his request, to have time to discuss it with his fellow party members, but Castanea made it clear that it was a "here and now" only choice. At one point I thought he was going to ask to know the whereabouts of Tyrus and Sabine, the offspring of the two previous kings, but then he started leaning in the direction of asking for safe passage through the lawless areas around the capital. The former could have had serious implications on the course of events (though I would have rolled with it anyways) and the latter seemed rather... uninspired. Then he hit upon what I'd hope he'd request. Returning life to Vissia.

Boon granted. Castanea stood from the stump she'd been sitting upon, reached up and put her hand on his chest and flung him backwards all the way back to the doorway of the estate. And then the earl's stableboy ran out of the stable screaming about the undead.

The PCs stayed for an extra day at the baron's estate allowing Vissia time to recover from her ordeal. Something that I think DMs and players alike tend to gloss over is just what effect dying and then being returned to life might have on the psyche of a person. This event is going to change Vissia considerably, and as an apostate priestess of Noyja she was already quite different than her peers. Sigfrido caught a glimpse of this when she spent much of the first day going back and forth between anger and thankfulness.

The night the party had arrived, Sigfrido had requested the baron send a rider south to intercept Onofrio and Silinia, who should have been heading north themselves the following day. By their second day at the estate there had been no word of the rider nor of their henchmen. Sigfrido fretted over this, worrying about how they might fall victim to the lawlessness ahead if they were traveling alone. He wanted to go back for them, but with an extra day already spent at the baron's estate, time was becoming an increasingly bigger issue. The time required to backtrack and then return would leave them with absolutely no margin for error for the remainder of their journey. Callisto and Giovanni eventually talked him into continuing on.

With a final warning from the baron their second night at the estate, it was clear that they would have to be on their way early the next day or risk being stuck under siege at the estate. After Sigfrido made a speech to the baron's remaining men and blessing them, the party headed out at first light the following morning. The baron had explained that the common rabble that had broke free from the city and was plaguing the countryside had taken to looting the bodies of his men of armor and weapons, smearing blood in a diagonal over any coat of arms in order to identify their fellows. With this in mind, the party had asked for and been given several tabards bearing the baron's crest, which they then made the appropriate mark upon.

So "disguised" they headed into the lawless lands around the capital city. What they rode into was a nightmare. I based much of the scene they faced in Padua on details from the peasant revolt of 1381 that occurred across large swaths of the United Kingdom, as well as the series of bloody rebellions in France in 1358 known as the Jacquerie. The savagery of the peasants who partook in such uprisings (these two in particular) are extremely well documented. This was intended to 1) make the PCs hate the rebellion (they're all from noble families themselves, after all), and 2) want to find a solution that would prevent their entire kingdom from devolving into utter chaos.

Due to the use of their "disguises" they were not overly accosted by their fellow "peasants" and the two times they were stopped Callisto managed to spin tales of slaying men of the baron, looting their armor and equipment and recovering their horses. A day's travel saw them safely through Padua to the south of the capital, through Vincenzo to the west of the capital (which shared the same fate as the former town) and into the countryside beyond where the rebellion had not yet reached. They camped out in the wilderness, well off the trade road and thankfully did not have any random encounters.

They were back on the road at first light, and began seeing more refugee caravans, survivors of the fall of Vincenzo, all headed west in the same direction as the PCs. As the day drew on they encountered more and more of these sad, beleagured souls, finally culiminating in the trade road ahead being blocked by a mass of hundreds of men, women, and children and dozens of wagons and carts at the river crossing to the town of Riverno, the seat of the County of Riverno within the Duchy of Riverno. Duke Goldoni had retained the services of a mercenary band known as the Band of Furies and instituted a toll to cross into his lands. The PCs though this terrible, but it became clear that the Duke was not looking to make a quick buck, but rather to gain the labor of the refugees in hastily constructing a palisade around Riverno. The PCs, of course, had no problem paying the toll in coin and so entered Riverno.

At this point the session descended into a period of hilarity. Callisto, usually the PC who has been most worried about the party's schedule, ended up delaying the group by a day after finally getting lucky... with an elf. He basically disappeared for a day and a half, leaving the other party members concerned for his well-being and turning over every rock in the town in search of him. No one thought too highly of his antics when he eventually returned to the inn they had found a lone room in.

They moved on to King's Bridge the following day, again avoiding any random encounters, and arrived shortly before dusk. They found King's Bridge to be a peaceful oasis compared to the sights they had seen the past hand and a half and quickly found rooms in the town's most expensive inn.

This session was more representative of our normal game play than previous ones. There was no combat, being entirely focused on roleplay, character development, intra-party rivalries and issues, etc. Callisto and Sigfrido are both closing in on reaching 2nd-level, with Giovanni not even to the halfway point thanks to having the harshest level progression table. This will pose even greater scheduling issues in the near future, as I don't allow characters to just magically level up over night. Increasing one's ability requires time and training, so they may have to choose between leveling up and meeting deadlines.

Sabine will be making a fresh appearance in the next session, throwing yet another wrinkle into the political intrigue and they'll likely cross paths with Earl Carulli again, since the next stop on the road to Sky Tower will take them to Valera, the seat of Earl Carulli's County of Balerno.

No game logs of this session yet. I usually don't receive them until the following session.

Good stuff - very much enjoying it!

Ancalagon wrote: ↑February 15th, 2019, 10:56 pm Good stuff - very much enjoying it!

Yeah, gonna echo the same sentiment. Awesome reads!

Session 06 - February 19, 2019

I took to referring to this session's "title" as Friends, Frenemies and Enemies, as there was a few reunions in store for the PCs. However, due to weather in the Omaha area we decided to start our session an hour ahead of our usual start time and end it several hours earlier than normal to avoid the worst of the snowfall we were expected to get. Because of this, a few planned events were missed and will have to be carried over to the next session.

The session began with the PCs waking the morning after their arrival in King's Bridge. They chose to save their hard-earned coin and grab their morning meal from the various street vendors in town rather than pay the exhorbitant costs of the inn they had stayed at, which gave them a chance to listen to the town's crier deliver the "news of the realm for the public's consumption." Very little of the news they heard was good. The Hirossians (think Roman Empire, pre-collapse) to the north appeared ready to take advantage of Trant's internal instability and cross the border in a land grab, forcing the Trantorans in the north to turn their attention from defending against Cinnibaran (Viking-esque raiders) coastal raiders and turning their attention to securing the kingdom's northern borders. Earl Carulli's eldest son, Ettore, was reportedly slain in battle by Cinnibarans a couple hands past, with the news finally reaching the south. The towns of Padua and Vincenzo had fallen to the rebels who had displayed inhuman savagery to their residents, and most of the men of Barons Velkia and Armellino were lost in the coordinated attacks and early word of Baron Lambert's forces north of the capital were no better. The capital and the central provinces appeared to be lost to anarchy for the time being.

The only reassuring news was that the Duceans, in the deep south of the kingdom in preparation for their annual celebration of the Hand of Duceus, had called off said celebrations and were marching for Castalgaluco. Upon their arrival, Duke Goldoni intended to collapse the bridge crossing the River Rheno, thereby helping to secure the western counties from further incursion by the savage peasant rabble. There was also news that the "Saltwater Crown" (pirate king) of the Mystshrouds (chain of islands and archipelagos off the kingdom's coast) had launched raids against the CInnibaran homeland with 20 galleys, "claiming numerous slaves and treasures." A small comfort, surely.

Following the reading of the realm news by the crier, the gathered crowd began to dissipate and the party spotted Onofrio and his sister Silinia. A quick reunion followed with Onofrio claiming he had had no success claiming the bounty for the spiders they had killed at the suspected necromancer's hovel. He did discover some rather interesting information regarding that job notice however. Several people had attempted to take the job previously, and none had returned. Oh, and the description of the man who had posted the job notice matched the description of the corpse they had found in the hovel. It was quickly (and correctly) concluded that the suspected necromancer had been attempting to lure individuals to his laboratory intentionally. He just happened to fall victim to the spiders himself.

A couple sessions back, after Callisto caused the death of Vissia, he had given Onofrio a silver and dismissed him from his service. Onofrio had immediately offered his service to Adjudicator Sigfrido however, thus remaining a henchmen. Upon seeing Callisto he unexpectedly walked up and gave him a manly hug, thanking him for that silver. It turns out that that one silver piece was all that had allowed them to pay the toll to cross the Rheno river into Duke Goldoni's lands, and then told a horrible tale of being one of the last people across the bridge as a the rebels fell upon nearly a thousand refugees waiting to cross. Long before the Duceans had been able to arrive, the central and western spans of the bridge had been collapsed, preventing the rebels from reaching Castalgaluco... but also leaving all those refugees to their fates.

As they were returning to the inn to allow Onofrio and Silinia time to clean up, acquire fresh clothing, etc., Adjudicator Sigfrido caught sight of another familiar face in the crowd: Sabine Cantelli, his half-sister and the only legitimate surviving descendant of King Cantelli. She slipped into the aptly named inn The Trickster's Whip before he could reach her. Being his usual arrogant self, he barged in and demanded information from the innkeeper, who in turn basically told him to shove off if he didn't have a writ of arrest or an order of apprehension. He'd share no information about his guests just because a Siyja'an demanded it. When Sigfrido refused to leave he sent one of his slaves to fetch the town constable.

At that point, Sigfrido glared at the innkeeper and decided discretion was, indeed, the better part of valor and retreated to the inn to await Onofrio and Silinia. Callisto went shopping, hoping to procure leather greaves and gauntlets, but no leather workers were to be found in luxurious King's Bridge, on account of the stench common to tanning. He did manage to pick up a pair of money belts for himself and his brother, however.

Throughout this entire time, there had been no sign of Vissia, their Noyja'an priestess who had only been restored to life through the boon granted Sigfrido by Buone, goddess of luck. King's Bridge, with a keep on each end of the town, is notorious for meticulously logging the comings and goings of everyone passing through the town, and upon checking with the garrison of each keep discovered Vissia had headed back east towards Catalgaluco that morning, about the time they'd been listening to the realm's news being read. Yet again they were down an NPC healbot, and this time for no apparent reason. Being on a time crunch, they couldn't afford to chase after her.

They left King's Bridge later than intended and headed west into Balerno County, home of Earl Carulli. Way back in the second session, the Wardkeeper Tianne had given Callisto a simple bronze coin that had been enchanted in some way to serve as a simple communication device. Two hours west of King's Bridge it began to heat up rapidly, a sign that contact was trying to be made. The message received was extremely garbled... a word here and there that made little sense, and then the coin broke in half, fell into Callisto's palm and burned him... only when examined the burn appeared to be the symbol of Kovoon, the Tyrant, the most feared and loathed of the so-called "dead" gods. This did not bode well...

They made camp a few hours east of the logging town of Salakri and had an uneventful night. They struck camp at first light, but not before Giovanni used detect magic to study the burn on Callisto's palm. It radiated intense magic, very similar to that detected on the coin previously. Of the two pieces of the coin, they radiated no magic whatsoever. Upon further study, it was determined the mark was in fact some form of powerful arcane mark. Whoever -- or whatever -- had caused it to come into being would see Callisto coming a long ways away.

Passing through Salakri two hours later, Callisto decided to ask around about a leatherworker and was pointed in the right direction by a member of the town watch. Gauntlets and greaves were acquired, as well as a pair of leather gloves that would cover the terrible mark that could very likely result in his death if seen and reported.

They reached Vallera, the seat of Earl Carulli's holdings, by dusk and settled into the town's only inn, where they were treated to rooms, meals, baths and drinks on the house due to Sigfrido's association with the Siyja'an church. Sigfrido partook in a rather interesting gossip session with the innkeeper's daughter while waiting for a bath to become free, which garnered him little information useful to his reason for being in Vallera but will become important in the next session. At this point, Sabine Cantelli entered the inn and upon seeing the Adjudicator, whom is one of her least favorite members of the party, drew steel. Between using the command spell to order her to hang her weapon and some social skill I didn't think the priest had in him, he managed to convince Sabine to take a seat and have a chat with him.

He discovered the reason she had fled the Ducean encampment with Tyrus in tow was the impression she got that the party would prefer to spend their time bickering among themselves than taking seriously the risk to her and Tyrus' lives. She brought up the Adjudicator's complete lack of social graces, Callisto's apparent apathy as to who sat on the throne, and how weak and ineffectual Giovanni appeared to be. Into these peoples' hands the Wardkeeper was placing the fate of a nation. Oh, and there was the matter of Giovanni and Callisto's father being directly involved in the murder of her family when she was but a child of six. So she'd convinced Tryus, still ignorant of his ancestry, to leave the encampment with her and they had fled, planning to take up in the Ducean monastary in the nearby mountains that Tyrus had spent most of his childhood and adolescence.

Then she drops the wrinkle. The Lady Tianne had divined the likely outcome of installing Tyrus upon the throne, and that outcome was strife and civil war within a handful of years, invasion from the north by the Hirossians as they took advantage of the political turmoil, and the collapse of Trant. Much the same as was currently happening, but worse. So they were planning to help seat someone upon the throne who would would lead the country into ruin due to his kind, appeasing nature, all because being dedicated to the faith of Tomes (god of nobility, right of rulership, etc) adherence to their scriptures was all that really mattered.

She presented a new option. One which I'm surprised the Adjudicator did not immediately attempt to slay or arrest her on the spot for even proposing. She would wed Tyrus, and bear his child, as distasteful as she might find that idea to be. And then murder the new King, leaving a clear line of succession. None other than the current regent, Earl Carulli, could continue to serve as regent until the child was of age to sit on the throne... after being raised and taught with that one singular purpose in mind.

She would not disclose Tyrus' location to Adjudicator Sigfrido, and when he became threatening (as is his natural inclination, it would seem), she explained that his continued survival depended upon her continuing to breath... and her continued freedom. Feeling backed into a corner, Sigfrido did not make any attempt to stop her when she rose from the table and took a room for the night under the very roof the party was staying under. He did not care overly much for that.

I had intended for the players to be on a strict schedule for their arrival at Sky Tower, but I'm going to put that off by several hands of game time to allow them to pursue some other problems related to Earl Carulli. Namely, the player's characters from a previous playtesting campaign that was literally all hack-and-slash style (testing combat mechanics of this homebrew system) were from Vallero, and have since all disappeared in one way or another. (They've all been corrupted by Kovoon, the Tyrant, so it sets the stage for dealing with... themselves... or their former selves...) There's also the matter of Sigfrido and Callisto's having leveled up at the end of this session, and they'll need a hand (week) or more of game time in order to actually get the benefits of reaching a new level. No magic overnight level ups here.

With the lack of random encounters along their way, this turned out to be another roleplay only session, which both I and my players are quite okay with, but Callisto and Sigfrido both managed to level up after rewarding treasure-based XP that had been accumulating over the past six session. Giovanni is still a session or two away from leveling, but that's what happens when a character class has the harshest level progression table.

Session 07 - March 19, 2019

We'd missed a few sessions due to my being out of the country on a short week long visit home in Australia and when two of the three players proposed having sessions two nights in a row I jumped at the opportunity to play a little catch up. The first session back didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, but that seems to be par for the course after even one missed session. I always seem to have a bit of a rough time getting back into my DM groove after even the shortest of breaks.

Our seventh session was once again six hours of almost pure roleplay. Both Callisto and Sigfrido were due to level up and characters in my campaigns don't go to sleep one night and wake up the next morning with new powers, abilities, skills, and other associated character improvements. They're expected to do a bit of work to attain that new level.

But things began with Giovanni the Transmuter waking early in the morning. In the inn's common room he discovered Alwyn and two of Earl Carulli's men waiting. The discussion between Adjudicator Sigfrido and Sabine Cantelli the evening prior had been held in the inn's common room, in front of other patrons. Rumors of a hithertofore believed dead daughter of King Cantelli were quick to make the rounds in Vallera, and Earl Carulli was none too pleased. Giovanni and party had an hour to rouse, eat and present themselves to the Earl.

This was going to be an interesting conversation. I'd been anticipating it for a while and was hoping like heck my players didn't do anything too unexpected. At issue would be the information gleaned from the gnoll Varrlair that it was the earl's daughter, Illaria, who arranged for the initial attack on the caravan that started off the whole campaign.

Illaria would be sitting in on this meeting, as Earl Carulli's “most trusted advisor” and Adjudicator Sigfrido has a bad habit of bashing bad guys first and asking questions of the corpses later. With the gnoll having implicated Illaria, I was prepared for Sigfrido to try an effect some kind of retribution, legal or otherwise. Such an attempt would likely have resulted in a TPK because I wouldn't have pulled any punches with the Earl's response, which would have been anything but measured.

Thankfully, Sigfrido played it cool for a change. He did bring up the fact that the gnoll claimed the attack was arranged by his daughter, but did not press the issue much beyond that. Throughout the meeting the daughter spoke not a word, though it was obvious she was digesting every word the rest spoke.

As the conversation progressed I was able to pinpoint astrategy for any accusations made against Illaria. At least one of the PCs was already suspicious of Alwyn's translation of the gnoll's answers. Being non-confrontational and unwilling to force anyone’s hand, Illaria would report the conversation to her mother (the Earl's wife and the vampire sorceress who serves as this campaign's primary behind-the-scenes antagonist). She would then whisper into the Earl's ear her own thoughts… that Alwyn was intentionally trying to incriminate their daughter for previously established reasons based on Alwyn's past. This wouldn't play a role in this session but in the future it would set up a great additional conflict due to two of the PCs having developed an affinity for the swordsman.

The conversation ended with the earl commiserating about a recent spate of problems in his own lands. Missing locals, dragon sightings, rumors of a quarantined village, and a missing priestess of Tyrare and an initiate in yet another village. With the majority of his able-bodied men serving in other parts of the kingdom fending off Cinnibaran coastal raiders and an amassing of Hirossian troops along Trant's northern border who might take advantage of the political unrest to stage an invasion, he had little more than the handful of men securing his estate.

He made an offer no sane man would refuse. Lands and titles in exchange for their service dealing with these pressing issues. Forevi, where the priestess had went missing, had an abandoned keep that could potentially become a useful base of operations. Thus, I set the table with a plethora of side-quests that, while they're nominally influenced by campaign events such as the rising influence of Kovoon, won't actually affect the main storyline. Side quests that I’ll use to fill in the gaps between major campaign events.

They agreed to have a look into the missing priestess, and have a look at the keep. With that agreement, the earl released the PCs for a hand (week) to recover from the two and a half hands of being on the go constantly and sent them on their way.

It was leveling up time.

In Callisto's case, he found a willing trainer in the innkeeper's daughter of all people. A bit of background here, the innkeeper's daughter, Saafiyah, is a recurring NPC in this group's campaigns, simply because she is so damn loved by the players. She was once a NPC companion of a PC in one of my other two gaming groups and tends to make random but logical appearances in various campaigns when appropriate. Despite being a NPC, it was the player who truly brought Saafiyah to light by writing, literally, a novella about her and the PC. Both are now NPCs that I use on occasion to drive intrigue plot lines.

For those interested, I present The Tandir Teracina/Saafiyah Novella (Must be read in reverse to make sense, thanks to the way blogging works.)

So Saafiyah approaches Callisto and makes an offer, suggesting that she might be willing to teach him a thing or two were he to provide a favor in return. In this case, the retrieval of an item from a local manor house owned by a minor noble.

I like making my players rely on creative thinking, and leveling up in my mind is about testing (and maybe improving) their creative thinking abilities in the course of overcoming obstacles with more than just dice rolls.

For Callisto's test, he was offered further training in exchange for procuring an item from a local manor house belonging to a minor noble family. I put considerable time into this little test, which I explained to Mark, the player, required the successful use of three of his rogue skills (the same set found with 2nd edition thieves), with the catch that no one rogue skill could be used more than once, and there were only five such attempts permitted.

Sounds simple enough, but I had to design the test so that the failure of any one or two skill attempts would not cut off access to the object in question, or his escape. Which meant building into the test a number of ways to progress with options for continuing at every point of failure.

Mark had a rough start of it. He'd never played a rogue in one of my regular campaigns, just in a playtest campaign where the object was testing combat mechanics. So he'd never been through the level up experience rogues go through and had a difficult time wrapping his head around it. That was mostly due to my horrible explanation at the start of the test.

I ended up letting the other players at the table jump into this test and offer suggestions and advice. I normally wouldn't allow this but as I said earlier, I was having a difficult time getting back into the DM groove and there was no need to make one of my players suffer because of it. It turned out quite well in the end. Mark finally made some sense of the rogue level up process, i.e., what I was after. After a rough start and some help from others he completed the test on his own with a few moves I hadn't anticipated. Which is kind of the point… creative thinking is the same as out-thinking your DM, in my opinion. When my players do something unexpected, something I haven't planned for… I love it.

Mark managed to pass his test by the skin of his teeth… just barely… and thus Callisto attained the 2nd-level.

Meanwhile, Sigfrido also had an opportunity to level up. His came by way of Vallera's local Adjudicator who gave him the opportunity to take his seat as judge and jury for hand, hearing and adjudicating cases brought before him by Vallera's locals.

I'm a huge history buff, and I love imparting a little history on my players during game sessions, and the five cases Sigfrido heard were all based on cases actually heard in European/Italian courts some five to ten centuries ago.

There were the rats charged with theft of grain (eaten) and facing a sentence of death with a wiley advocate arguing that the rats could not possibly be expected to appear in court, what with the local cat population potentially accosting them on their way to the proceeding.
There was the demand by one man to exhume the corpse of another to have it stand trial for theft. There were two brothers, one a plaintiff and the other a defendant, on a charge of theft of a candle (the drunken brother lit it after arriving home and it burned down, arguing no theft was involved since the wax remained). A woman demanding her husband be humiliated in the town stocks for infidelity. There was a fifth case but I cannot for the life of me recall what it was at the time.

Everybody had a blast as Sigfrido was presented with some of the wackiest (to modern thinking) cases, and my players took away a little bit more useless real world trivia than they possessed at the start of the session. Unlike Callisto's test which relied in part on successful dice rolls and the creative use of thief skills, Sigfrido's was completely free form. Five cases, three of which he had to handle to my satisfaction. I would allow him to make some skill checks to basically consult his knowledge of Trantoran law, but he chose to forego such skill checks and just wing it.

The rats were not sentenced to death, there was not enough evidence against the deceased to warrant an exhumation and try him, the candle affair between the two brothers was mediated for a copper piece and it ended up being the woman locked in the stocks. Still can't recall the fifth case despite being just a few days ago.

He handled four of the five cases to my satisfaction, so Sigfrido also gained a level, advancing to 2nd level.

The group spent five days in Vallera for their tests and training then saddled up their mounts and headed southwest to the village of Forevi to look into the disappearance of the local Tyrarian priestess. It was an uneventful two day journey (my d10's can't roll a random encounter to save their lives, or to end the PCs' lives) and when they arrived they immediately visited the “temple”, which turned out to be nothing more than a crudely retrofitted crop storehouse.

There they met a young novitiate by the name of Perata, who was present at the time of the abduction. She had hidden in her quarters while an argument and scuffle took place below her. The case of the missing priestess and novitiate took an early plot twist when she revealed the priestess had in fact been arguing with the male novitiate named Gillo. A preliminary search of Gillo's belongings turned up some journals and a black sapphire, the focus of those who serve Kovoon, the Tyrant.

Another black sapphire turning up. Another link to Kovoon. We ended on that mini cliffhanger.

No player journals posted on that group's blog yet, though I have them. I'm just way behind on some of my bookkeeping at the moment.

Session 08 - March 20, 2019

With the past two sessions being purely roleplay, this session promised a serious combat outing for the party. It would turn out to be a near TPK, with the day saved by Giovanni the Mage being the only PC or NPC left standing. I knew going into this session that this little side quest, intended for a party with at least a couple 3rd-level characters, had the likelihood of being absolutely brutal, but it was the sidequest they had pursued, and I don't pull punches when players bite off more than they can chew.

The PCs spent the first couple hours of the session further investigating the disappearance of their Priestess. Journals were found that detailed the novitiate's frustration with Tyrare and his introduction to Kovoon by a wandering Doomguide (priest of Axsyn, god of life and death) who was name dropped as Dillon's character from one of our preceding short lived playtest campaigns. The journals gave an indication that Kovoon uses a priest's existing beliefs and merely twists them. For example, Tyrare is the goddess of renewal. Kovoon destroys. They would seem at odds but sometimes renewal comes through destruction, such as the case of a forest fire. In this way does Kovoon and his followers corrupt priests of other faiths, by manipulating what they already believe to Kovoon's end rather than trying to oppose their beliefs directly.

There wasn't a whole lot of places in Forevi where a nasty fellow like Gillo could hole up without every villager and their sheep knowing about it. In fact, there was only one place: the abandoned keep that Earl Carulli had suggested in the previous session might be granted for the party's use. A little checking with the locals revealed that they were extremely superstitious of the keep. No one ventured within its walls, though it had been abandoned for decades. Why it was feared? No one rightly knew… they'd just all been raised being told to stay away, that it was a black place, etc.

Alwyn had joined them on this outing. Being the Earl's man it was thought he'd be able to lend some weight to the party's presence, since they were ostensibly in Forevi on the Earl's business. When the locals couldn’t -- or wouldn't -- speak of the keep's history the PCs turned to Alwyn for answers. After being pressured he gave in and revealed the Baron that had once had title in these parts had attempted to revolt against the father of Duke Goldoni. The revolt had been put down swiftly but Earl Carulli’s father, a banneret, had been slain within the keep during the final assault on the Baron and his forces. Alwyn didn't know the specifics, but Earl Carulli had once confided in him something about the Baron's involvement with dark forces.

It was the perfect place for a Koovonite to hole up with his abducted priestess of Tyrare, it was decided. They would rest the night and explore the keep the following morning.

Thanks to the five day stopover in Vallera, their NPC healbot priestess Vissia managed to catch up with them the following morning, bringing dire news of recent events in Castagaluchi, where the plague had caused it's victims to become crazed, half-melted abominations under the control of a Noyja’an priestess. The city had been assaulted from within, and she had watched in horror as men, women and children were slain in the streets behind her as she fled. She identified the priestess in question as one that Sigfrido had been seen spending considerable time with during their stay in the town, casting suspicion on him by association.

With that news digested the party set out with Alwyn, Silinia (a wizardry type henchman) and their healbot Vissia to explore the keep. They barely made it through the wrecked front gates before they were set upon by four half-melted creatures that appeared to have been once human. Vissia immediately identified them as the same abominations she'd seen in Castagaluchi and rushed forward to attack. (She's a really bad healbot, I should admit.)

This was the party's introduction to a monster type that will be recurring quite a bit. Individuals who have had their souls sucked from them to power the black sapphires that serve as a Koovonite's holy symbol/focus. The soulless bodies are then possessed by spirits loyal to the Tyrant. Each has a special spellcasting ability that allows them to share damage amongst any number of them, with any excess damage simply lost. i.e., a four HP attack on one in a group of three deals one HP of damage to each, with the fourth simply lost. Only if anstrike can out right destroy one does it simply drop dead. Individually they're fairly weak, just 2 HD creatures with a natural attack, but they can soak up quite a bit of damage in larger groups. There's no easy way to reduce their numbers and slowly draw down the number of their attacks against the party.

They also spotted a man they assumed to be Gillo who seemed to be directing the abominations. Callisto went directly for the puppet master while the rest engaged his puppets. Callisto was certain he was onto something - kill the puppet master and perhaps the puppets’ strings would be severed. Gillo turned out to be much more difficult to deal with than expected. Every time Callisto dealt him damage, he would heal himself, drawing life from his own abominations. When Callisto refused to let up he retreated into the keep, where more minions waited.

In the keep's feast hall several large spiders that appeared to have been crafted from the remains of other animals descended down around Callisto. He had basically triggered the next group of monsters before the party had managed to deal with the first. Mark's normally horrendous dice rolls were nowhere to be seen this session though, and he made short work of the spiders himself (only ½ HD creatures with no special abilities besides poison). But it gave Gillo time to retreat further into the keep and out of sight.

In the courtyard, Vissia had went down. The rest of the party had slowly whittled down the HP of the creatures to the point where a couple good hits exceeded the remaining HP of a few of them. As more began to drop the shared damage increased, speeding up the process. The party was eventually victorious, but at the cost of most of their spells and more than a few wounds… plus their healer quite unconscious.

Yet they continued on rather than afford Gillo any time to regroup and counterattack. Inside the keep they discovered time had done a number on the wooden portions, such as stairs and upper floors. Gillo could only have went down, so they headed after him into the catacombs. They came across a door guarded with obviously magical runes at the bottom of the staircase and Giovanni, out of spells, was tasked with studying them while the remainder of the party moved on. Silinia had been assigned to watch over the unconscious Vissia in the courtyard, as she had prepped only utility spells per Giovanni's request.

Callisto, Sigfrido and Alwyn came across another abomination further in the catacombs, a half-golem taken from the pages of the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium supplement, but weakened a bit for a lower level party. It lost it's regenerative ability namely, as well as a couple HD. Sigfrido… always wanting to rush into combat… tossed his lantern aside as the PCs and Alwyn piled into a small room.

Throwing a lantern down? Things like that always perk my DM ears. I had him roll a d20, figuring a result of 11 or more would see the lantern stay lit. It was Dillon's turn to roll a natural 1. The room went black as their only source of light was extinguished just as Callisto managed to disarm the abomination of the Rapier it wielded.

The resulting fight was brutal. With darkness penalties, the PCs weren’t hitting. Having Dark vision, the half-golem did not suffer the same. Alwyn managed to get a grapple on the creature, and even pinned it for a short time, but ended up eviscerated for his efforts. Sigfrido went down next. Leaving only it and Callisto. Callisto eventually yelled for help from Giovanni who came running, but could do little being out of spells.

What followed was six combat rounds of Callisto and the abomination trading blows in darkness as Giovanni ran back to the courtyard to fetch a torch from Silinia. Mark, Callisto’s player, has a notorious reputation for rolling low. Of the three campaigns I DM, no one comes close to Mark’s title of most-1’s-rolled-ever. But he also has a reputation of pulling high rolls out of thin air when they’re absolutely needed. And so he did during this combat, managing to single-handedly keep the abomination at bay for a full six rounds of combat.

Silinia accompanied Giovanni back down into the catacombs with the two arriving just as Callisto went down at 0 HP. He’d actually managed to get in a few licks of his own though, and the half-golem was on its last legs. Between Giovanni's slingshot and Silinia's quarterstaff, they managed to eliminate the half-golem. Disaster averted.

Or not. Gillo, cornered in an adjacent room thought he could get the better of two magic users who did not seem to be casting any spells, and thus (in his mind) were surely out of spells. He jumped into melee with Silinia with a dagger and took her down before advancing on Giovanni. Thankfully, Giovanni had cast armor on himself that morning, and he hadn't taken a single point of damage yet.

It was a race to the HP finish, slingshot vs dagger, with Giovanni coming out the Victor with a whole 1 HP left to his name before it was all over.

Giovanni had no choice. He took the risk and headed back to camp a quarter mile away to fetch their still injured comrade Onofrio, Silinia's brother, to help carry the wounded out of the catacombs. Had there been any more bad guys in the keep at that time I would have declared the rest of the party dead, but they’d defeated everything that Gillo had had.

Onofrio used he and Silinia's one healing potion on Vissia, bring her back to her feet, and she in turn got Callisto, Sigfrido and Silinia on their feet before completely exhausting her own spells. As for Alwyn… he was quite dead.

At this point the session was drawing to a close, but I like to leave sessions with cliffhangers whenever possible. With Gillo dead, the magical runes Giovanni had been studying had collapsed, allowing entrance to a room beyond. A room that held the corpse of the obviously pregnant priestess of Tyrare, expertly sliced and diced, with no sign of the child she had been carrying. On Gillo they found two vials filled with a smoky blue ethereal gaseousness. They correctly deduced that Gillo had indeed managed to separate not one but two souls from his victims.

The session was over, but not the terror of Forevi. No good deed goes unpunished, especially when the agents of Kovoon are interfered with.

I like those combats that turn into nail biters right down to the last hit point. Good times!

Ancalagon wrote: ↑March 26th, 2019, 4:25 pm I like those combats that turn into nail biters right down to the last hit point. Good times!

This was one of those. And I really couldn't have hoped for a more nail-biting conclusion to that fight from a DM perspective. PC victory, but questionable the whole way through.

Opposed to the mess we ended our last session with. We played another two sessions this week and the last one featured a confrontation that the PCs were intended to run the hell away from. Or died swiftly trying to face. They ended up defeating that encounter with nothing more than a dead henchman thanks to a lucky crit. From a DM standpoint I probably should have waved off such a brutal crit result against such a superior opponent but at the time I stayed true to the dice and established game mechanics, for better or worse.

Live and learn.