Glad the travails of my players proved amusing to others aside from myself. And thanks to those who added their own anecdotes. For any interested folks, I have an update on the party status.
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To recap, a group of 6 2nd lvl PCs and 1 2nd lvl NPC were virtually obliterated in the climactic battle of the Sunless Citadel module. New characters were rolled to generate a “rescue/revenge” party. Here’s how the group make-up breaks down (Original characters followed by the new character rolled by that player):
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-- Half-Orc Barbarian (dead) / human fighter (ranged specialist)
-- Elf Monk (dead) / Human Cleric of Pelor
-- Human Rogue (captured) / 1/2 Elf Ranger
-- Dwarven Fighter (captured) / Human Paladin of Heironius
-- Elf Wizard (captured) / another Elf Wizard
-- 1/2 Elf Rogue/Sorcerer (captured) / not replaced as this way *my* character and based on sessions up to now I wanted people to be able to concentrate on developing their own character personae
-- Gnome Fighter/Cleric (captured) / not replaced as this was an NPC
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So 5 2nd lvl characters were going to brave an encounter that knocked them for a loop when there were 7 of them...
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Everyone asked if I would write them up new back stories (as I had done previously). The original stories set up long-term quests for the characters (some dark, some noble), some loose ties and shared pasts, and several interesting long-term NPCs. Too much work to do it all again, and a bit draining to be honest. Plus, I figured that now they’d all had a taste of the game and could do it themselves. Everyone was encouraged to come up with a backstory, a reason for coming to the staging town, and/or a reason to be seeking the first party. Most of them chose to “spin off” their original stories to amusing/interesting effect.
The fighter seeks the half-orc because prophecy has told him finding this legendary warrior (the half-orc was a pit fighter in his youth) is critical to the fighter’s plans to return to his homeland and overthrow the “corrupt” Elven council that banished him. The ranger seeks the human rogue because the rogue stole a mystic talisman which the ranger was using to track his kidnapped bethrothed—of course, the talisman passed from the rogue’s possession before the prior adventure. The elf wizard seeks his brother, long absent from their homeland, because with the death of their mother, the issue of their inheritance is at hand. The paladin is a more general and eager questing knight and the cleric also lacks a strong back story at the moment, but makes up for it with strong role playing. He is a massive (6’6” 280lb) figure who is blustery and jolly. He roleplays his 11 Charisma by generally being too loud and has modeled his morals on Friar Tuck. He spreads the good word, but has taken ranks in Forgery and Bluff to help him in liberating necessary funds. A vow of poverty is not on his agenda.
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Impressed with the work the group had done, I sent them on their merry way and noticed that they were all playing more like characters on an adventure, rather than a “party” on a dungeon crawl. The lack of rogues also sped things up as they didn’t feel compelled to “move silently/sneak/hide/check for traps” through every square inch of the place. I tweaked the map a bit and repop’d a few areas to keep them on their toes (they did a good job of feigning ignorance of the place and effectively pumped NPCs for info) and off they went.
At this point -- a caveat: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS
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FROM SUNLESS CITADEL -- CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
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Okay, a few changes from the published adventure. I threw out the limit on Gulthias tree supplicants (4) and decided that all the captured party members had been transformed. That is, they were now irredeemable servants of the tree with all their old abilities, plus permanent barkskin (which really irked people down the line).
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After some softballs to get the party warmed up, they penetrated the citadel to the grove level. The ranger was cannily using his skills to follow the tracks left by the previous party and they soon found themselves in the area just east of the entrance cavern to the grove level. There, in the operating room where the tumor-laden dire rat was found, three twig blights were attending the former rogue/sorcerer and NPC cleric (now supplicants) as they experimented on the bodies of the dead half-orc and elf monk. The party did very well, and even managed to subdue the supplicants, stripping them of all gear and tying them up (gagging the cleric) in the hopes of saving them later.
At this point, the fighter, upon finding his half-orc quarry dead, did something very amusing. He cut off the little toe of the corpse, hoping to one day find a cleric who would be able to cast “resurrect”. And hey, why not?
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Moving further, the party encountered two more fresh supplicants—the human rogue and the dwarven fighter—with 3 more blights. The dwarf was an absolute lawn mower, dealing max damage twice, and the rogue just kept shooting arrows as the blights engaged in melee. The ranger went to 1 hp and retreated down the hall, which the tanks managed to clog with themselves and blights, keeping the dwarf back. As the blights started to fall, though, the dwarf stepped up and put the cleric into negatives. Amazingly, the ranger twanged off a bow shot at the human rogue supplicant (his old character), hitting for a x3 crit and doing 27 points—killing his former self outright. The dwarf executed a fighting retreat to avoid being flanked, but the ranged specialist finally got off a shot with no cover interfering and put the dwarf down just before the paladin was about to fall. The paladin laid hands on the cleric to revive him. The dwarf was stripped and tied up and a little toe was taken from the corpse of the human ranger supplicant. The group retreated to a defensible room to rest and heal.
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At that point, the players did a great job of communicating in character, getting out some backstory and making plans for the future—even some secret conversations between the fighter and ranger while alone on watch. While this went on, though, I was scheming. The NPC gnome cleric supplicant left behind in an earlier room had only been unconscious, not in negatives, so he woke up and took 20 on his escape artist to get free of the ropes. Then he cured the rogue/sorcerer supplicant (who had been stabilized) and the two of them (nekkid) tried to return to their master. They heard the party (between them and “home base”) talking and surprised them, but all they had going for them were their fists. Still, they nearly pummeled the ranger into unconsciousness, prompting one player to note on his behalf “I just got my ass kicked by Pinnochio.”
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With the three subdued supplicants freshly trussed and gagged (and all stabilized in the negatives), the group pressed forward for the big party.
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They tried to stay close, mindful of having been picked off singly last time, but this just let them all get entangled by the druid’s wand once again. In addition to the druid, Sharwyn (female wizard supplicant) and sir Bradford (paladin supplicant), the group faced their own former wizard, now a supplicant. The druid’s frog had died in the prior fight.
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The paladin made his saves on entangle, but kept edging forward hesitantly, fearful of the bad guys ganging up. Also, Braford and the blight were hidden behind the courtyard walls for much of the fight. The wizard supplicant and the party wizard (his brother, remember?) started trading magic missiles after a sleep spell put down Sharwyn. The cleric (entangled and with only 1 spell remaining for the day) burned his slot to cure light on the wizard. A Flaming Sphere from the druid missed the cleric, but found its mark on the ranged specialist fighter, who was doing some damage with his bow. The druid skipped the paladin, knowing paladin’s have such great saves, and opted for a Heat Metal cast on the cleric and ranged specialist. The cleric saved, but the specialist started to get warm. The flaming sphere finally winked out, but it looked as if the specialist was going to die much the same way he had when the player was playing the half-orc. No time to remove the armor and no more available heals.
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At this point, the cleric did something interesting. He heaved a pint of oil at the tree, which was clearly visible above the courtyard walls. Despite Dex and attack penalties from entanglement and range increment penalties, he hit. The ranger immediately set about lighting some of his arrows, as he had planned to do all along, and landed a shot which set the tree on fire. I figured the fire was high in the tree, making it difficult for any of the bad guys to extinguish it.
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The paladin decided to join the fray and charged the tree to chop it down—which is when the hidden blight and Braford made themselves known. Sir Braford, to be frank, scared the crap out of my players after the first time through and for good reason. He made short work of the paladin, sending him into negatives far from any reasonable help.
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The ranged specialist, desperate to save himself, got clever. He emptied his waterskin over himself which I decided would halve the 2d4 of heat damage to 1d4 for the round. The cleric joined in with his wineskin on the next round, so although the specialist fighter went negative, he was only at a -2. The wizard duel was almost an even heat. Finally, the supplicant wizard (at 0 hp) threw everything into a ray of frost which hit his brother. The supplicant wizard went negative, and the brother—with the frost and the twig blight now swinging at him— went to 0. He spent the rest of the combat standing still. The cleric, still entangled, overcame penalties to stabilize the specialist and started to draw the blight’s attacks.
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Unfortunately, just as the ranger was freeing himself from the entangle, the druid charmed him and implored his new “friend” to put out the fire. The paladin continued to bleed...
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Fortunately for the party, the fire damage done to the tree was finally enough to destroy it. With a shriek they “felt rather than heard”, it crumbled into dust—along with (I ruled) all of the supplicants. The druid, enraged, foolishly ordered the charmed ranger to turn on his companions, granting the ranger a new save (which he made). So, while the cleric started whacking at the blight, the ranger spun and fired an arrow into the druid, who charged the ranger with his sickle.
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The cleric took out the blight and the ranger did something very cool— he spun away from the druid, risking (and avoiding) an attack of opportunity, and managed to stabilize the dying paladin—at -9. The druid was finally slain and when the entangle wore off, there were 2 out of 5 party members stabilized in the negatives, 1 disabled at 0 hp, and 2 standing tall. After resting, the cleric healed the paladin and they went on from there...
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Midway through this fight, I was feeling awful. It really looked like all of them were going to die and I could tell that at least one person (the paladin’s player) was irked. This player wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the new mood of role play, people passing notes and/or not disclosing every item they found in their searches, etc... And now they were going to die again. I was thinking we’d never play D&D again and started hoping for ways to fudge things.
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As it turns out, I didn’t need to... To my amazement, they pulled it off with equal parts luck and resourcefulness. It was incredible, especially since the bad guys were rolling VERY well that night, prompting more than one player to gripe that their characters had never performed this well when they were the PCs. It was, hands down, the coolest combat I’ve ever been a part of as player or DM. They went all the way to the ragged edge and still pulled it off. Also, the players were totally into it. We met at noon to finish rolling/polishing the new characters. We started actually playing at 2pm and (after eating two meals at the gaming table), finally handed out the xp and broke up at 12:30 am on Monday morning... Nothing like twelve plus hours of D&D to pass the day, eh?
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One last note of amusement... The toe-collecting ranged specialist, knowing that, at 1 hp, he was going to go negative from his heated armor, decided to gasp out a few choice last words to those entangled nearby: “Don’t... forget... the toes...”
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Hope someone out there enjoys this as much as I did. Thanks for reading!
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spazweez
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