This is the start of my AP for my new campaign, which follows the Savage Tide adventure path from Dungeon and Dragon magazines. I've decided to follow the story pretty straight up with two addenda: I'm going to probably run the extra adventure, "War of the Wielded", from Dungeon 149 before the players leave Sasserine. I'm also going to bring at least one plot thread forward from my old Greyhawk Mega Module campaign--Darla, the demon that got away--though if other connections strike me, I'll definitely make use of them.
To make characters this week I got together a set of D&D3.5 books and two Savage Tide resources: Savage Tide Players Guide has the special feats for Sasserine districts while Dragon 348 has affiliations. I should have also brought Dungeon 139, because it includes another overview of Sasserine, notably listing which deities are associated with which districts, but I forgot it.
I started off telling everyone about Sasserine, and trying to encourage them to think about what district they came from before they got into their character. This generally worked.
Unfortunately only 3 of my 6 potential players were here this week. (I have 6, but I'm pretty sure most weeks will average 4-5, which should be fine for ST as long as I don't run into problems with players leveling.) Dave P. made a dwarf warrior, Donald made a human mage, and Mary made a human cleric of Pelor. Altogether a surprisingly placid group of characters, though warmages and spirit shamans were considered at various places.
I'm hoping the other players can make their characters over the week, because I'd like to get into the actual first adventure next week, but we'll see ...
There will be spoilers for the entirity of the Savage Tide in this thread. You are advised not to read it if you may someday play it, and not to read past where you are if you are currently playing it. This is your only warning.
So today was a slightly frustrating start to the campaign. My fourth player did indeed show up, but something like an hour late, and then he had to make a character. Another player had to leave at 5pm, so we only ran from 3-5pm or so.
Here's the current cast of characters:
Anghorat merch Anian (Mary), Human Cleric of Pelor
Antionette (Donald), Human Wizard
Brand (Dave P.), Dwarf Fighter
Pierre (Eric), Human Bard
Session: #1 Date: 8/4/07 Modules:Dungeon 139, "There is No Honor"
As suggested in the adventure, I had each player come up with some notable thing that they had done recently. Anghorat had turned a ghost that had been terrorizing her sister. Antionette had destroyed a ghost in the Witchwarden tower. Brand had first helped to save the goods of a merchant he was guarding, but then had lost his ancestral dwarf armor over the side of the boat while cleaning it. Pierre had quieted a barroom brawl with a song.
It was because of these exploits that the players received invitations from Lavinia Vanderboren offering employment. They all met outside the Vanderboren estate and soon proceeded inside. Here Lavinia explained that, following the tragic death of her parents in a fire, she had received an estate in debt. She was now trying to hunt down her father's signet ring, to get access to the family vault.
Lavinia believed that the ring was somewhere aboard The Blue Nixie, a family boat, but unfortunately it had been impounded due to unpaid fees, and worse, after she'd paid the fees the scalliwag in charge of the impounded boat, Soller Vark, had then claimed that such had never occurred, and refused to return the boat. The PCs were thus hired to get the boat back--or at least the ring--using a language that Vark would understand.
The players started off with a bit of research. Brand and Pierre worked through the pubs in Sasserine's merchant district and learned that Vark was indeed a ne'er-do-well. Meanwhile Anghorat and Antionette spied out the boat. Here they found that rather being docked on a pier, as they'd expected, it was instead moored to a float 100 feet beyond the dock. Worse, a few thugs on the boat spotted them, and made them out as adventurers, though they'd tried to disguise themselves as fishermen.
Coming together the party decided to rent a row boat, wait until the evening, then row out to the boat. Doing this they soon discovered that the boat was preparing for departure. Worse, they were again spotted, this time as they entered the circle of illumination cast by the lanterns on the boat.
In many ways the players did things in the most lawful--but otherwise worst--way possible. The dwarf Brand intimidated his way on to the boat and was soon followed by the cleric Anghorat. However they also stood around and talked while the crew of the boat slowly gathered. It wasn't until the bard Pierre tried to climb aboard--by which time seven thugs including Vark were all on deck--that the hostilities started.
Following a flailing attack by one of the thugs on Pierre, Brand bull rushed that thug, sending him plunging over the side of the boat--unfortunately right into Pierre. After that things descended into chaos. The dunked thug fled immediately--stealing the players' row boat--and was soon joined by the one other thug the players wounded. In the meantime, however, the players were getting quite the worse of it on deck. The wizard Antionette was taken down before she cast a single spell, and after that the PCs started dropping one by one. Brand was the last dwarf standing. He and Pierre had hoped to take down Vark as a last-ditch attempt to win the day, but they failed.
Fortunately the thugs aren't blood-thirsty or evil. They bound up the players' wounds and have locked them up below decks, where they plan to sell them into slavery with the Scarlet Brotherhood.
Though I complained about the session running very short, this was actually a great stopping place because I had to figure out where to go next. The captured-to-be-sold-into-slavery bit was partially suggested by the players, but it seemed to click well. Next week we'll thus have to kick off with an escape, which is going to be fueled by two things: the magic user both has all her spells, and unexpectedly some rogue discipline as well; and my fifth player should show up next week, and I think is going to be a stowaway on the Scarlet Brotherhood ship.
Dungeon magazine warns that the first encounter is dangerous, and that indeed proved to be the case. The biggest problems were that the players went in with very little plan and quite overconfidently. They thus weren't concerned when they ended up outnumbered on the deck and by the time they realized that they were outclassed, it was too late.
(Everyone got a 100XP bonus for how closely they hewed to the lawful line, after Lavinia had told them not to throw the first punch, but that was the only XP of the day.)
Personally, I suspect it was a mistake to put such a difficult encounter straight up in the adventure, especially when (as with our group) players might just be getting used to D&D3.5 and the power level therein.
And, as for D&D3.5, I liked the short experience I had, especially when compared with our AD&D1 campaign of the last year. One of my hopes from the new campaign was that we could take good advantage of the tactical combat system and have interesting battles, and at least this first one paid off in that, though I really need to buy some sort of gridded surface that I can mark up with a marker. I've got an increasing number of Dungeon Tiles from Dragon magazine, but they have more limited uses, and can't be used for, for example, a boat.
Seeing as how I am in a Savage Tide campaign myself (see here!), I'm curious as to how your group is going to manage with the Parrot Island business. I'm not sure what our party would have done if I hadn't had a certain spell memorized "just in case"...
Anghorat merch Anian (Mary), Human Cleric of Pelor
Antionette (Donald), Human Wizard
Brand (Dave P.), Dwarf Fighter
LC (Kevin), Elf Ranger
Pierre (Eric), Human Bard
Session: #2 Date: 8/11/07 Modules:Dungeon 139, "There is No Honor"
Waking, the characters found themselves in the hold of the Blue Nixie, caged amidst parrots, monkeys, and a gigantic spider that their captors were smuggling. They were also clearly at sea. Over the next few days Soller Vark came down to quiz Brand the dwarf about why the characters had been interested in the boat, but Brand refused to talk. Vark really didn't seem to care one way or the other.
Four days out the Nixie docked up with another boat at sea, and the players soon heard the ring of blades from the deck above. That was when the ranger LC appeared down in the hold. An elf and originally a resident of Sasserine, she had been captured by the Scarlet Brotherhood some time before and made a slave. Now she had escaped from the Brotherhood's clutches, stowing away on the very boat which had just met the Nixie on the open sea.
LC freed the members of the party, starting with the cute bard, and then the PCs searched below decks for their items. By the time they'd recovered their equipment and re-armed and armored themselves, things had grown ominously quiet above deck. The cleric Anghorat cast off a few healing spells, but they were still below fit fighting form.
While trying to decide what to do, a red-robed monk started descending the ladder from the deck above. The players waited for his head to get below deck, then they assaulted him. He let out a cry as he fell from the ladder, and a moment later two more monks were literally leaping into the melee. This time, the PCs did much better, quickly dispatching their foes.
There were a few mishaps getting up onto deck, but Brand eventually led the way, encountering a few more monks and a sorcerer here. After Brand took another monk down, the remaining Scarlet Brotherhood members fled, led by the sorcerer who jumped across to his own ship then cut the ropes connecting the boats. The PCs lolly-gagged for a moment, but then Brand decided to follow, making a death-defying jump across to the Brotherhood's ship. Anghorat resecured the two boats, while Pierre and Antionette followed Brand across: Pierre with a daring tumble, Antionette with a more careful crawl.
The sorcerer, who had used up all his spells while fighting the Vark and his thugs, surrendered. There was some discussion of the fact that taking the Brotherhood's boat would probably cause a diplomatic incident, since the Brotherhood had recently set up an embassy in Sasserine, and thus the players eventually decided to let the sorcerer and surviving monks go. The sorcerer even wrote the players a note described Vark's smuggling activities (and claiming that he'd helped the players end them out of the goodness of his heart, whereas he'd actually met Vark to trade, then betrayed him).
Afterward the players searched the Blue Nixie and found the money that Lavinia had paid to Vark, her father's signet ring, and a strange riddle of some sort. With the help of Vark's one surviving crewman and LC, the only two sailors on board, they managed to get the boat back to Sasserine harbor five days later, at which time they turned the boat and the surviving smuggler over to the authorities and the various items over to Lavinia. The animals on board were turned in to the authorities too, but not before Brand managed to get the giant spider turned over to Sasserine's arena. He was made a pot boy there for his efforts, a great honor. Brand also bribed one of the harbor master's lackeys so that he could keep one of the parrots. He figured a parrot on his shoulder would look flashy in arena combats.
The next day Lavinia asked the players if she could put them on retainer, including LC in this for her efforts on the Nixie. She then asked them to accompany her to her family vault. She'd never been there before and suspected that there might be constructs or other traps.
The noble vaults were located beneath Sasserine's castle. Lavinia and the players were shown to the Vanderboren vault, and Lavinia was able to open it with the signet ring. She insisted the players enter first in case there was trouble, and sure enough they were attacked by an iron cobra. It was a tough battle, but several rounds in the players realized that the cobra was avoiding Lavinia. They coaxed her into taking control and ordering the cobra away.
Afterward the players found a secret mechanism which led them into the inner vault, and here they found a huge puzzle involving what was essentially a massive combination lock. The mage Antionette immediately realized that the riddle that had been stored with the ring secretly revealed the combination. The rest of the players were totally disbelieving, but Antionette was entirely correct. The inner vault was opened, revealing seven alcoves full of chests: the Vanderboren legacy.
Unfortunately Lavinia soon found that the majority of the chests had been looted. There was nothing of value until she came to the seventh and final alcove. Here she found some cash, piles of debts owed to the Vanderborens, and a strange manuscript in her mother's hand, written in Sylvan.
Lavinia told the PCs it would take a few days to put her estate in order, but requested their aid afterward in another task: finding her brother.
(We ended a tad early, but I didn't want to get into Part Four of the adventure, because I figured that if I did, I'd just have to repeat it all next week.)
Interesting group dynamics. They don't plan their tactics ahead a lot, do they? At least they seem to be paying attention.
__________________ I have a blog. Currently blogging on The Best Argument Against Belief EVER!
The D&D game I DM: Chronicles of Essenon: Outcasts Updated 6/4/08
The D&D game I play in: Chronicles of Essenon-Vengeance! Updated 6/4/08
"When Von Bek wins, we all win. A little."-Steve D tells it like it is
"I mean, I like you Von Bek, sometimes I don't even post because it'd just be quoting you with "QFT" at the bottom"-chiguayante
Nope, and I made it clear that was one of the problems with their first battle. To be fair, Brand the dwarf was playing his 3 WIS.
Yes. I was very pleased when Kevin brought up the embassy.
3!!! Oh, my. Now that makes sense then. One of the things I miss from using our chargen method (4d6 discard lowest, reroll ones, 7 times discard lowest again) is a distinct lack of really low numbers. They add character to the...er...characters. One of my favorite characters was my fat Al-Qadim merchant-thief. He had a Con of 4, Str 8, and Dex 10. He was charismatic, but that didn't open up any classes back then.
__________________ I have a blog. Currently blogging on The Best Argument Against Belief EVER!
The D&D game I DM: Chronicles of Essenon: Outcasts Updated 6/4/08
The D&D game I play in: Chronicles of Essenon-Vengeance! Updated 6/4/08
"When Von Bek wins, we all win. A little."-Steve D tells it like it is
"I mean, I like you Von Bek, sometimes I don't even post because it'd just be quoting you with "QFT" at the bottom"-chiguayante
3!!! Oh, my. Now that makes sense then. One of the things I miss from using our chargen method (4d6 discard lowest, reroll ones, 7 times discard lowest again) is a distinct lack of really low numbers. They add character to the...er...characters. One of my favorite characters was my fat Al-Qadim merchant-thief. He had a Con of 4, Str 8, and Dex 10. He was charismatic, but that didn't open up any classes back then.
We used the chargen straight from the book, which is 4d6, discard the lowest, and you can start over if your sum of characteristic modifiers isn't positive at the end.
So Dave started off with a roll of 1-1-1-1 (which is 3), and some other mediocre rolls, and as he got to the end of his character he said, "Well, I have to roll 18 on the last two for this to be viable". And he did.
Kind man that I am, I said he could toss it out anyway. Good roleplayer that he is, he said he'd keep it, and Brand was born.
Anghorat merch Anian (Mary), Human Cleric of Pelor
Antionette (Donald), Human Wizard
Brand (Dave P.), Dwarf Fighter
LC (Kevin), Elf Ranger
Pierre (Eric), Human Bard
Session: #3 Date: 8/18/07 Modules:Dungeon 139, "There is No Honor"
The session opened up with the players being called back in by Lavinia, who had some new news. She'd continued to be concerned over the theft of so much from her family vault, and so she returned to the clerk there and asked him if anyone else had visited. She discovered that her missing brother had done so, since he'd left the estate several weeks before. The players were then treated to an info dump about how Vanthus was the brother gone wrong who Lavinia still hoped to save, and then she gave the players their latest assignment: to find Vanthus. Their only clue was that he'd been reputed to be in the Azure district with some hussy.
From here on out I really took my time because I wanted to give everyone a bit of the flavor of the town. So I let the players spend two days looking for Vanthus in Sasserine. I do so over the course of a half-dozen encounters that led the players to the Bloodthirsty Pelican, the Imp's Folly, the Azure Cathedral, the Sasserine Sleigh Ride, and the Black Market. The players picked up some info on Vanthus and his current girl, the pickpocket-turned-artist Brissa, but nothing conclusive.
At the end of the second day Pierre was approached by a shifty half-elf named Shefton who had heard that Pierre was looking for Vanthus and offered to take him to where Vanthus was, for a small payment. Shefton took Pierre out to Parrot Island, where a trap door led to hidden tunnels before. Pierre briefly scouted the island, then the next day brought the rest of the party back. Only Brand was left behind, because he was busy with his new job as pit boy at the arena, but the other characters made sure to tell him where they were going in case anything happened them.
And that's where things went bad.
On Parrot Island the players were suspicious, and so they searched around the island for a bit, wanting to see if there were other entrances to the tunnels. This is troublesome because as the adventure is written Vanthus is hiding in the underbrush, but he absolutely can't be captured at this point. I decided to have Vanthus back off and wait until he was sure the players were underground before springing, but in retrospect a better answer would be for Vanthus to have some hireling here, who could be captured and questioned if the players are cautious enough.
Eventually the players headed down into the tunnels, the ranger LC in the lead. At the first door they heard sound beyond, so they prepared themselves. When LC opened it, a zombie pirate tried to grab her arm. She screamed, which was enough to alert Vanthus on the surface, and so just as the battle ended four rounds later, the players all heard the stone trap door being slammed shut behind them.
They were trapped!
Investigating further inward the players found a pool full of crabs which they insisted on fighting, and as they did two more zombies came upon them. They finished off the zombies, then returned to fighting the crabs, and as they did they heard something banging at another door into the room, trying to get in.
The crabs now all defeated, the players placed themselves back from the door and waited ... and were surprised when a minute or two later three zombies swarmed into the room. Apparently, they'd just been expecting one.
The other zombies had hardly seemed a threat, but this time every single zombie successfully grappled a PC and started gnawing on them. The cleric couldn't get her holy symbol free to turn them, and everyone else faded fast. Things weren't helped by the fact that the bard was watching the other corridor rather than helping in the fight. Within seconds Anghorat, Antionette, and LC were all taken down, and as the zombies began gnawing on their flesh, Pierre tried to make a panicked run for safety. Wildly bouncing about the tunnels, he slammed straight into a final group of three zombies ...
TPK.
So that's somewhat discouraging that out of three sessions of play, the PCs were totally defeated in two of them. As one of my players said, "We're not very good at Dungeons & Dragons", and I think there's something to be said there. One of the things that had me enthusiastic about playing D&D3.5 was the more tactical combat system, and that's what the players really don't seem to be taking advantage of.
Here there were a few critical mistakes, largely tactical in nature, such as:
1. The players backing away from that door rather than staying right on it where they could have fought 2:1, with the cleric and magic-user providing support.
2. The cleric getting in the front line where she was grappled, and thus never having a chance to turn the zombies. She still had two uses of turn that day.
3. The bard not being involved in the fight, not even to point of giving them Courage bonuses, until it was too late. (Though he wouldn't have made a big difference.)
Granted, I'm still getting a handle on the system there. I made at least one mistake in the combat that might have given the zombies a slight advantage (treating an action that should have been a delay as a ready), and perhaps I should have just realized that 3 zombies were a bit much for the players ... but really they wouldn't have been if the players had taken advantage of the fact that they knew these mindless zombies were coming.
So in two weeks (when we play next) there will be new characters all around. I also need to figure out a side quest to account for the fact that the new PCs will be close to 1000 XP behind. Neither of the two first level adventures I have in Dungeon magazine appeal, so I suppose I'll have to see if there's anything good in Wizard's online archives that can be easily adapted into the Savage Tide plot.
Otherwise, shudder, I'll just have to come up with a short adventure of my own ... which really is probably the way to do it. Maybe something surrounding the arena, since that's where the surviving character is ... heck, that could even be a good way to introduce the new characters to Brand before I get back into the Tide.
Good Lord. Then again, in the campaign I'm in we had our fighter with us. And we were using some variant rules. And everyone knows how to "play D&D" in terms of the "kill them and take their stuff" mentality of combat.
"-chiguayante
Linear Mode
