My Greyhawk game has reached the City of the Gods. And they met some blue “goblins”. After sneaking around in the previous session, it was time for a fight!
So, the session began. And the “goblin” leader opened his mouth and said, slowly, “Do you understand me?”
Yes. Not goblins, but in fact explorers from an advanced technological plane!
Which led to a hilarious conversation. Yes, the players knew what was going on and they had fun playing along. The “goblins” thought the party were backwards, and the party couldn’t understand that technology wasn’t magic. We got to use Clarke’s Third Law and reference it in the conversation! I am so pleased!
During the conversation, we established that the explorers were not from this city. However, their numbers had been dwindling as the “space” trolls had been taking them, and they needed help defeating the trolls. (High technology they might have, but the “space armour” of the trolls defeated all their technology – it was from yet another plane!) They did tell the players that the trolls had a base in the Terminus, whatever that was. But apparently the rail line led to it. (The one the group has sabotaged earlier to prevent a trainload of trolls from returning).
The “space armour”, wherever it came from, had the effects of increasing the trolls’ strength and intelligence as well as protecting them from magic and technology. So, the players had a definite challenge in front of them.
But first they had to reach the terminal.
Trolls in the Street
Following the rail line, the characters came to a very built-up part of the city, with buildings towering above them on both sides. No-one was particularly surprised when trolls emerged from the buildings. What was perhaps a little more surprising was that they were just normal trolls – not the bulkier versions of the “space” trolls. Apparently, the armour had a physiological component to how it worked!
Six trolls. Five characters of about level 15. This should be a walk-over, shouldn’t it?
The party:
- Barbarian 14
- Cleric 16
- Wizard 16
- Paladin 15
- Fighter 13
Their opponents:
- 6 trolls (CR 5)
Kobold Fight Club says this is a Hard encounter. And, I must say, it went a lot longer than I expected. Partly this was due to the players conserving spell slots – especially on the part of the paladin – but also due to one basic fact of the encounter: The trolls came from all sides.
It is a lot harder to fireball trolls when they are all around you and only two can be caught in the radius!
One complication I added to the battle was spectral cars going through the battlefield, which would block line of sight. At least, I tried – I just forgot to move the cars after adding them, so the battlefield was more static and predictable than required.
We were missing the Sorcerer, so the party was down on effective fire magic. This did make things more difficult. Firebolts from the Wizard helped the party keep the trolls down, but a couple of times a troll managed to get up.
The characters still won the battle. And most of the characters were undamaged, with the exception of the Fighter, who had the majority of the trolls attack him. He was under 10 hit points by its end, if I remember correctly.
So, the party needed to rest.
Wyverns in the Sky
To make things more interesting, I had a couple of mated wyverns fly by at this point. The party quickly decided to take shelter inside the building the trolls came from.
Except, unfortunately for them, there were five further trolls in there, just waking up from their sleep.
Did the party choose to retreat and find another place to rest? They did not. At least they would be protected from the trolls in the building. Iyolas the Wizard won initiative, and fireballed four of the trolls – this time the trolls were arranged in a good manner for this!
The foes:
- 5 trolls (CR 5) (surprised)
- 2 wyverns (CR 6)
After casting the fireball, Iyolas retreated behind the Barbarian, standing in the doorway.
Can you see the problem with where he moved? I sure could – and because I could, so could the wyverns!
While the rest of the party were distracted by the trolls, the wyverns moved down and attacked Iyolas. He got stung once, but the party could not properly come to his aid because the trolls were not dying fast enough.
Then I did something quite nasty: The wyvern, instead of making a claw attacked, attempted to grab the wizard. The first attempt failed. The second succeeded. It flew away with him – and it stung him into unconsciousness, so he could not dimension door away!
It deposited him on the roof of a nearby building (where it actually had its nest), and started to eat him, only returning to the fray when its mate was attacked by the rest of the party and killed before it too could retreat.
This fight? According to KFC, it is rated as deadly (barely). And yes, it killed a character. A 16th level character. With a CR 6 Wyvern.
Post-Battle and Thoughts
The trolls did quite a bit of damage to the party, so they really needed a short rest. The cleric retrieved the body of the wizard and revivified him before the minute was up. (The cleric has wings of flying if I remember correctly).
Timewise, both battles consumed about 90 minutes of play, in a 2½-hour session. Neither battle was over in a couple of rounds, but they were not extremely long affairs either. Five or six rounds at most?
Treasure was found. Hooray! Including a few magic items of minor import.
I did want to show that even at these high-levels, relatively low-CR monsters can still pose a threat. Numbers are incredibly important in 5E. A single boss? Might not even get an attack. Six trolls? If they’re not clustered together, they have a chance to get a few hits in.
I hope to show future sessions as well and give you a feel for what encounters the players deal with.