Since Jim has his kids on alternate weekends we can only play every second weekend. Our last scheduled Sunday we had multiple people out with the flu so it was cancelled. After a month of waiting, our intrepid adventurers are back at it!
Jess (Kava) bailed on us at the last minute, Steve (Grabthar) told me well in advance he had to move so we were down two players to only three — Dave, Pat and my lovely wife Mel. As both players out were the party Paladins and fulfilled both the “healer” and “tank” roles, I let Pat play Kava in addition to Gallindann.
As noted, this contains spoilers for the Keep on the Shadowfell module. Don’t continue reading after the break if you plan to play it in the future.
The party accompanies their recently-rescued friend Douven back to Winterhaven where they take an extended rest before setting out to clear the kobold lair.
Approaching the lair they notice a large amount of kobolds outside, and Radivis recognizes the stone circle the kobold “Dragonshield” is standing is as an ancient magic circle that provides benefits to those within it. As they notice the kobolds, however, one of their scouts hears the noisy plate armor of Kava and sounds the alarm. A battle ensues.
As before, the majority of the kobolds are “minions”, but as easily as they die their sheer numbers cause problems. Near the ned of the battle one kobold shouts out “Irontooth must be warned!” and runs for a cave entrance behind a waterfall. He is cut down before he can reach it, however. Eventually those outside the lair are slain, and the party has a short rest before exploring further.
The waterfall and darkness behind it makes peering into the cave difficult so the party steps in together and are immediately presented with another large group of kobold minions backed up by some deadlier skirmishers. This fight, while similar in difficulty to the previous one ends up being quite difficult because the dice refuse to cooperate with them. A few rounds in and most of the party is badly wounded and many minions are still alive. As they come back from this near-defeat and most of the kobolds lie slain, they hear a battle horn from deeper inside the cave. This horn announces the arrival of a large goblin: Irontooth.
To make matters worse, from another direction a kobold “wyrmpriest” appears, guarded by two dragonshield kobolds! This section of the fight is incredibly nerve-wracking. Kava concentrates on holding Irontooth off while Radivis summons a flaming sphere to deal with the Wyrmpriest and his guards. The damage and placement of it causes them all to flee backwards to try to get to a postion both away from it and where they can continue their attack. Radivis is able to force it to pursue them, eventually killing them all.
In the meantime, Lindal can finally use his sneak attack ability as he flanks Irontooth from behind as he concentrates on Kava. The entire party concentrates fire on this mighty opponent and time and again they’re confused when they damage him more and I haven’t announced that he’s “bloody” (at half hit points) yet.
When he finally does he flies into a blood rage and starts hitting Kava much, much harder. The party pulls out all the stops and eventually downs him. They are all bloodied, lucky to have not been knocked down, and happy to loot the now-empty cave. In a chest they find a suite of +1 Dwarven Chain Mail, which Gallindann happily dons.
The battered party heads back to Winterhaven after a short rest. There they learn the history of the Keep on the Shadowfell including the tale of the Keep’s fallen commander, what the Shadowfell is, and why the absolutely must head there to save the village from a rampaging undead horde. They also check the village shop for magic items. It surprisingly has three items they may want (I rolled randomly) but are unable to afford anything aside from a couple of healing potions.
The next day, after a well-deserved extended rest they head out to the Keep. The outside is desolate — not even the forest around it encroaches its grounds. There is evidence of recent activity however, so they decide to send Lindal down a staircase to stealthily scout the entrance. He succeeds in being unseen and notices a gobling guard lazily leaning against the wall watching the entrance. Lindal heads back and quietly informs the rest of the group before heading back down.
Lindal succeeds in sneaking down the stairs and moves straight towards the guard, ignoring one of the major rules of sneaking — never go straight across an open area. This doesn’t cause him to fail it so much as it causes him to fall into the hidden pit trap!
The goblin guard is surprised and then starts laughing as he prepares his spear for combat.
Being an acrobatic little Halfling, Lindal makes his Acrobatics skill check to prevent damage so well that I decide he doesn’t even fall prone. This is good news as the bottom of the pit is covered in a swarm of writhing hungry rats! They seem just as surprised as him and fail to cause any damage during their first attack. Lindal wins initiative and immediately decides to get out of the pit. Again he does so well that he I describe his escape from the pit as a Jackie Chan-style parkour exit more than a “climb”, much to the surprise of the goblin guard who now shouts for help.
Some goblin snipers are alterted and attack from their hiding place — they have a neat ability to not become un-hidden if they miss an attack — but they and the guard are quickly dispatched.
And that’s where we left off. The party has entered the Keep on the Shadowfell to discover it’s not as abandoned as they had hoped. Or not — abandoned keeps aren’t worth as much experience.
Speaking of which, they all received almost enough experience to get to second level so I decide we should level them up using the D&D Character Builder in preparation for when they actually do. This means we don’t have to take that time in the middle of a session.
Dave asks if he can modify his character a bit as a few of his abilities aren’t good choices for the play style he now knows he needs. 4th Edition has this option built-in, allowing you to change a few things each time you level, but I handwave and allow him to change whatever he wants because none of us knew exactly how it would all work. The Character Builder really makes this easy too.
Speaking of which, I need to go get more ink cartridges for my printer…