Greetings. Welcome to the first session of /mlpol/'s first running of the classic third edition d&d campaign Red Hand Of Doom.
On this adventure, our heroes, currently three strong, will encounter dozens of trials that will test their strength, cunning, and friendship as they face an army of goblins.
If you'd like to join, there's still room for more in the party. Don't be shy to ask.
Our story begins in Elsir Vale, with our three heroes on the road to the town of Drellin’s Ferry. The three are seasoned adventurers, and exated heroes to boot. Having fought many battles together before, they are confident in their strength. Legend has it of a vast treasure in the Vault of Vraath Keep, hidden deep in the Witchwood; our heroes, have journeyed all this way to seize the vault for their own.
Despite that, they all have their own motivations to travel to Drellin's Ferry:
Sir Whiskers, a cunning and charismatic Tibbet Jester, is travelling to meet up with an old friend of his: Princess Princess Bagel Jennifurr Fluffykinz the fourth. He hasn't met his old friend since he was a kitten, and he's eager to meet with her again. She has arranged to meet up with him in Drellin's Ferry, and to accompany him on his adventure.
Sir Brozal, a mighty Orc Crusader of Pelor, has received a mission from a high-ranking Cleric of his order has received a powerful vision of war descending on Elsir Vale under the banner of a clawed red hand, and has sent Brolaz to the far reaches of Elsir Vale to avert impending disaster... Brozal isn't exactly sure if the vision was real, or if his master just wanted to get rid of him for the year, but he never turns down a good crusade.
Brother Chad, a wise and powerful Druid, has chosen to accompany his companions on their hunt for the lost treasure in the Witchwood. Sir Whiskers requested his aid because Chad is the most experienced woodsman he knows. Chad is wary of this region, for he's heard that it is ruled by a fierce and territorial Druid, but he embarks upon this jouney nonetheless, the secrets of the Witchwood too tempting to ignore.
...So tempting that he seems to have drifted off somewhere with his horse; probably fucking it again or something. Stupid hippie.
And so, let's begin:
>The afternoon sun beats down on you; the air is hot and still. The sparsely settled lands of Elsir Vale are starting to grow monotonous, with a seemingly endless line of dusty flyspecks of towns. The town of Drellin’s Ferry lies a few miles ahead of you. It’s a settlement hard on the borders of the Witchwood, and the best place from which to begin exploring the nearby forest.
This is the part where the players ask obvious questions that I thoughtlessly ignored in the first post, as well as implore about their surroundings.
1970 replies and 82 files omitted.
Okay, Bro burn an action point to attack after he uses Crusader's strike, healing 18 hp and saving himself. One of the hellhounds goes down.
And because I gummed-up the turn order, it's Whiskers's turn now. I'll just decide that the archers didn't want to fire into the melee.
>>134059Figuring anywhere's better than here, Whiskers whisks off towards the barn, hoping to find anything that could help either of them in this precarious situation.
>>134060Okay, that's a retreat action, to move uphill at one half speed, the wolf snarls after you.
The Samurai juggles his blades and strikes twice, one attack hitting for 12 damage.
9 archers fire into the melee, all of them missing like chumps.
Both hounds miss.
Three archers turn around after Whiskers, seemingly alerted by something. They follow the wolf after him, drawing their katanas.
I'm going to let Whiskers roll a hide check right now, with a +8 bonus.
Bro manages to hit the samurai, visibly wounding him, but not dropping him.
Three archers fire down at Bro, one hitting, the damage being reduced to zero by Stone bones.
Sorry guys, this didn't start out as smoothely as I planned.
We'll come back to this encounter tomorrow. Hopefully our caster will have shown up by then, and I'll be a little more prepared.
Okay, here's how it's going to go down.
I know I said at the beginning that I would reset if the two of you died horribly in the first encounter, but I still want to see it until the end. Ultimately, nothing has been spoiled so far except that "You get ambushed by goblins in the woods" Spoiler Alter: It's going to happen a lot
This encounter has artificially high CR because it's meant to be a large source of your XP, since you won't have that many hard battles for a while after this.
You have 8 Action points for this level. Brozal has used three. Whiskers hasn't used any.
Be aware that an action point can be used to refresh all of your maneuvers as a free action, or to initiate an extra maneuver in one round.
Currently, the archers are closing in and making a 9-fold phalanx around Brozal with their longspears, who is currently squaring of against a Hobgoblin Bladebearer, and being flanked by a hellhound. The Bladebearer juggles his ki-charged swords and prepares his stance to finish Brozal himself with his special move (spoiler alert). One of his wounds appears to be closing, healed by a mysterious unseen force. He is completely surrounded as is. Trying to escape would be his death, so he may as well go down fighting.
The g
Brozal, idk when you last read the houserules, but I did give you all, improved Shield Bash, Two-Weapon-Fighting, and Combat Expertise as bonus feats, without having to meet the prerequisites. You could be making shield bash attacks at minimal penalty this whole time, without losing AC (remember, you heal every hit with martial spirit). You could also gain up to 5 AC with Combat Expertise if you take a -5 penalty to your attack rolls.
You also get a +1 bonus to hit creatures with the Fire subtype. I've been factoring it in automatically into your attacks against the hellhounds, and your saving throws against their breath weapons.
Whiskers, since you can't see the grid map right now (my failure as a DM, I'm going to address this next session), I'm going to inform you right now that if you cast Glitterdust on the ring, the radius spread would encompass all of the hobgoblin troops flanking Brozal, the Hellhound, the Bladebearer, one of the wolves flanking Brozal, one of the three hobgoblins that's about to pursue you up the hill, and Brozal himself.
You could also choose to direct fire at the three hobgoblins that are searching for you and the summoned wolf. The hobgoblins haven't found you yet, but the wolf may reveal your location with it's scent if you stay too close to it. The hobgoblins pursuing you have effectively left combat this round as they leave their comrades to pursue the strange cat: they would be flat-footed if you attacked them from concealment (which means iajutsu focus). Be reminded that you have three attacks in your cat form
I will let you roll spellcraft to determine the the caster level of the wolves's summoning, and thus the remaining duration. I should have pointed that out to you this round.
You can use one of your action points to recover a spell slot after you use it as a free action, but you can still only use one action point per round.
If the two of you get through this battle alive without me having to fudge dicerolls or reset the game, I'll give you both ranking affiliation scores in the churches of your deities (that means membership in the Shining Light of Pelor and Bast's Trickery Domain Affiliation), without making you pay for tithes. Consider that bonus treasure, because it's several thousand gold pieces worth of mechanical bonuses and roleplay perks.
If you die, I'll just reset and wait for a complete party.
>>134154>The g*The goblin troops appear visibly empowered by the Red Leader's commanding aura, and gobble among-st themselves reveling in their impending victory. Although Brozal can't speak goblinoid, he can vaguely make out that they're bickering about how to split his loot.
It's Whiskers turn, btw. His decision could decide this encounter.
>>134157Oh good joy.
You're about 300 feet off of the map, basking in the afterglow of a very intimate brushing session with your prized white mare, Misty.
I'm going to roll some dice to see what you hear. I did max out your perception skills.
>>134156The kitty feels the chills of uncool crawling up his spine.Before running a further 45 feet, Whiskers casts Glitterdust on the orc and the entire blob of enemies surrounding him.
(Ugh... can't even remember his name... must be all the tension,) the cat worriedly thought to himself as he ran further towards the sacred barn.
>>134159You can move up to 35 feet if you want to cast a spell in the same round (30 ft movement, plus your five foot step).
Since the underbrush provides you cover, you may retreat while sneaking, albeit at only one half your normal speed.
If you wish to move in this fashion, roll Move Silently; if not, roll a caster level check (1d20+6) as you fire your AoE.
I'm not going to penalize you for moving uphill because I don't feel like looking that shit up right now.
>>134160I'll give sneaking another shot.
[1d20+1 = 11]<Move Clumsily Roll
>>134157>>134158Your horse hears some commotion ahead of the curve. She describes it "like a flock of giant turkeys", but you understand that your friends seem to have run into trouble.
Misty, with her 90 ft walking speed (wow!), could be all the way there in one round if she took the run action.
What do you do?
>>134161The wolf doesn't hear you as you leave the range of its scent, but one of the goblins seems to have heard rustling in the bushes and points towards you. The troops growl, directing the wolf with a pointed finger as they close in towards you with their swords drawn.
Roll that caster level check, btw.
>>134163Nice. You successfully beat the Fiendish Wolf's spell resistance.
One Of the goblins pursuing you near the edge of the blast screams in pain as he's blinded, crit-failing the save with his -1 modifier on top of it.
Now let me figure out if I'm supposed to roll all these saves separately or if I roll them as one together. I'm lowkey stalling for Bro and chad to make themselves apparent.
>>134162I mount Misty and run towards the turkeys.
The ball of golden dust hits right in the center of the kill-circle.
A new figure appears behind the samurai guy, he looks a bit like this, only covered in golden spray-paint, with some invisible patches. It seems as though this bad boy has been buffing and healing the warriors this whole time.
He claws at his eyes, apparently blinded by the spell. Most of the marauders do, actually. Everyone but the Samurai.
>>134165You appear just in time to see a circle of red-skinned, hairy warriors encircling your friend Brozal, along with a black wolf and another doglike monster. Before your eyes, a flash-bang goes off in the middle of the circle, covering them all in golden dust. Most of them appear to be blinded.
Roll 1d20+2 to make an intellence check concerning these marauders.
The movement was Misty's action. You were already mounted.
You still have an action. What do you do?
You could:
>cast a ranged spell (see >>133933 → )>Dismount and enter Wildshape (small or medium animals only)>Give up one of your spells to summon a monster to help>Shoot a sling bullet >>134166The wolf flanking Brozar is blinded.
Ah, the Hellhound is not actually blinded. It saved heroically.
The warriors all shriek in pain, pointing their spears in random directions, no longer threatening Brolaz. Some step away rubbing at their eyes. The Red Leader Barks at them, to no avail.
The Goblin Priest, now visible, also paws at his eyes. Unable to really do anything else. He utters a prayers and in an instant melds into the crowd, uniform to the rest of the regulars.
I think I'll just roll Brozal's saving throw for him.
>>134167>>134165You are about 30-40 ft away from the kill-circle, btw.
Brolaz manages to pass his saving throw, but only with Pelor's grace, as he burns another action point to regain a use of Zealous Surge. He barely avoids being blinded.
>>134167[1d20+2 = 9]I cast call lightning on the group of warriors.
>>134168Okay.
>>134170Call lightning is a 5 foot wide burst. You could normally target only one guy, but I'm going to let you hit too since these guys were close together.
Do you have a particular target in mind?
The wolf growls at Whiskers and finally lunges towards his hiding place, the goblins following him.
The wolf's teeth surge with dark energy as it smites him with it's bite attack, dealing 9 damage.
I already rolled his check modifier to avoid being tripped. He passed.
Whiskers, don't forget you healed 2 HP that last round.
Both the pursuing hobgoblins strike at you with longswords, comically missing like stormtroopers.
>>134171>>134170You see 9 blinded regulars, one wolf, one fire-dog, one not-blinded Samurai, and one blinded priest in the kill circle.
>>134171>>134175>Do you have a particular target in mind?The priest and the fire dog.
>>134176The They on opposite sides of Brozal, so I'll just have you target the priest and the regular next to him.
The lightning hits the priest's mace like a lightning rod. I neglected to mention he was disguised, but you had a decent chance of hitting him anyway.
Regular was already wounded, and is KO'd from the shock.
The priest is visibly damaged, but doesn't drop.
"Raagh! You'll have to do more than that!" he bellows in common, before he downs a potion.
The fire-dog bites at Brozal, but fails to pierce his armor.
Fuck it, I'm just going to have Brozal do a full attack while fighting defensively with full combat expertise.
All of them miss, but his AC is high this turn.
The Red Leader clashes his blades together and taunts Brozal.
"You! You dare fight me?!”
He counters with his own combo, but Brozal manages to block each hit.
Brozal takes the damage from his delayed damage pool. His HP is pretty low now.
Whiskers is currently being attacked by one wold and two goblins. He could step out of their melee range with his 5 ft step if he wants to cast a spell without provoking AoO's
He could also elect to take the retreat action, and move 60 ft uphill.
The blinded regulars scramble ineffectively to return to their previous formation. With a bark from the red leader, they form a haphazard spear wall around the priest the red leader.
Chad, you can move again right after Whiskers.
>>134180>>134176Also, be aware that you can use Call Lightning again every round, and drop up to 6 bolts.
>>134179Whiskers will continue to retreat, always searching somewhere to hide inside the farthest away these interlopers and towards the barn again.
[1d20+23 = 40]<Preemptive Hide Check
>>134182With a check like that, you're able to gain concealment in the bushes by the barn, but the Hobgoblins see where you went.
Both wolves vanish in a puff of black smoke.
>>134177>>134181I cast call lightning on the regulars
>>134183Meow takes the opportunity to reload the crossbow and switch to the rapier, readying a melee attack the moment the icky, uncool hobgoblins keep their harrassment.
>>134184You manage to damage two, but that's not enough to drop them.
>>134185Technically you can't use weapons in cat form, but I neglected to mention that earlier, so go ahead and do it.
You can't ready an attack after taking a full round action though.
>>134186Crud.
Let's pretend Whiskers simply holstered the crossbow for instant scratching action instead.
The Priest takes the total defense action, and casts and Orison.
A shadowy area covers the kill-circle.
....
And is completely negated by the everburning torches that Brozal strapped to himself...
"REEEEEE stupid Orc! Muh Doom!"
.... I really wish Brozal's player were here... e_e
>>134188I've been neglecting to mention that Brozal has been suffering from his light sensitivity.
Brozal manages to hit the Bladebearer twice, critically wounding him, but not dropping him. He heals 4 HP with from Martial Spirit.
>>134186I cast plant growth in the area around the regulars.
The Bladebearer takes a 5 ft step back and barks orders at his regulars before taking a potion and moving back towards the priest. The regulars manage to get between Brozal and the Bladebearer, still blinded.
Brozal makes an attack of opportunity at a blinded goblin and drops him. There are regulars left in the road.
The hellhound fires his breath weapon towards Brozal, who manages to save ad only takes 4 damage.
He's at like 15 HP, with 4 points in his delayed damage pool.
Whiskers already declared his turn
>>134184Chad's turn. You don't have to use all your lightning at once. It'll last 4 minutes (40 rounds). You can cast another spell or summon a monster.
>>134191Ah
Thick bushes and tall grass spring up all over the road, making the terrain difficult for the already blinded goblins.
Next round, this would be perfect terrain to cast entangle on.
The Bladebearer and the Cleric stand back to back, surrounded by what remains of their kill-circle.
The bladebearer shouts something in goblinoid
"Gobble gobble gobble gobble Tiamat gobble!"
The blinded goblins on the side of the road draws his sword and waddles towards Chad, although not moving very fast.
The goblins pursuing Whiskers give up on him and leave.
They immediately see Chad and fire arrows at him.
One magages to hit him, dealing 9 damage. Another bounces off of Misty's flank, spooking her.
Chad, roll a Ride check. For you that's 1d20+3
>>134192*8 regulars left on the road.
With a bark from the Priest, the hellhound leaves the killcircle and charges right towards misty, biting into her leg with its fiery maw.
It would be Bro's turn, but idk where his player is...
He fights defensively and takes a potion. With no non-blind creature threatening him, doesn't provoke AoO. He regains 2 HP, but takes 4 damage from his delayed damage pool. He's at like 11 HP, really fucked-up.
Whiskers's turn
>>134192[1d20+3 = 15]I cast entangle on the area.