The eighth session of Scourge of the Sword Coast had five players: one new, Troy, who played a fighter, and four returning faces: Danielle (rogue), Josh (bard), Tait (rogue) and Sondra (ranger). This was Troy’s first game of D&D; I hope he enjoyed it.
Structurally, the session ended up being almost entirely combat. The gnolls that were guarding Phylund Lodge put up a big fight against the group. I used D&D miniatures and Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles again this session, but I discovered that I didn’t have the right minis – for some reason, they’d ended up at home rather than still being in my car. We proxied a bit as a result.
The group continued on from last session, with the group approaching Phylund Lodge. They could see the stone lodge buildings were still pretty intact, but the wooden palisade and gatehouses had collapsed and were now overgrown. Tait and Sondra scouted forward, disturbing a pair of hyenas that were running around the grounds. Tait killed one with his bow – he’s a specialist archer rogue – but was unable to kill the second before it could raise an alarm. Two more hyenas came into sight, and Danielle charged forward on her dire wolf, slapping one to the ground. Sondra, seeing Troy menaced by another hyena, used Animal Friendship to charm it. Josh ran forward to help Danielle, but was shot from the windows of the lodge by gnolls – he quickly ran for cover.
I was placing dungeon tiles to show the lodge, and filling it in as the group discovered more of it. The blue d6 is the charmed hyena standing near Sondra. Danielle’s rogue is next to an enemy hyena (red d6). Standing on the walls – actually behind windows – are the gnolls, whilst Tait has just run into the lodge and discovered a gnoll waiting for him! Troy is the dark elf near the corner of the other part of the lodge, and you can just see Josh’s miniature hiding in the corner between two of the gnolls.
Danielle, Troy and Josh realised very quickly that they didn’t want to stay in the open, and rushed to aid Tait – this took some time, and Tait was sorely hurt by the time they caught up with him!
I’d made Troy’s fighter using the “simple” build which just has increased chances of dealing critical hits rather than all the manoeuvres – much as I like the manoeuvre system, it’s tricky for a player in their first game when I’m going to be somewhat distracted running the rest of the game. However, a ten percent chance of dealing a critical hit every attack is not bad at all, and he got one with his great sword, slaying one of the two menacing Tait, the other was slain by Tait himself, now he had someone else in melee allowing him sneak attack chances. With the two gnolls in the entry chamber now dead, Tait opened the door to the main chamber, only to find that both gnolls were waiting for him – he was struck again by their bow fire. He dodged out of the way and let the others slay the remaining gnolls.
Stairs leading up were investigated, and two more gnolls were slain. There was a door in the far wall, and further places to explore upstairs, but the group was hurt; they needed to rest, and so they rested for an hour – a “short rest” in D&D Next terminology.
Meanwhile, behind the door to the east, four gnolls sleeping in the stables were waking up. They considered their options: attack immediately or lay an ambush? They chose to ambush the party when it came through the door, and so they did. As the group fell back, the gnolls rushed in!
Tait was surrounded, and once again Troy rain to his aid. Sondra and her pet hyena took on two gnolls, whilst Josh began to sing and Danielle fired arrows from a safe distance. It wasn’t that long before the gnolls were defeated, but some cure wounds spells and healing potions were used before the group headed upstairs.
Correctly guessing there’d be more gnolls outside, Tait chose to climb the wall and get in a window as Sondra and Troy climbed the stairs. They swiftly discovered not only gnolls, but a Wizard of Thay waiting for them… and Tait discovered that his window led into a side room, not the landing where the fight was going on!
Sondra’s hyena was killed protecting its mistress, and Sondra fled down the stairs. Troy rushed to the room that Tait had entered, and found himself caught by a hold person spell – luckily for him, he was quickly able to shake it off.
Some of the gnolls chased Sondra down the stairs, and so we had a battle going on two levels at once. I reconstituted a portion of downstairs map, and had the two battles going side by side!
The group actually did really well, and were able to dispatch the gnolls without being too hurt in return. One last gnoll and the wizard fled, but they were chased down, another critical hit to removing the Wizard from this life!
And that was, unfortunately, all we had time for. The next session will – with any luck – see more variety in the action. This was a really big fight sequence; I do enjoy them, but not every week!