Highfell Journals Session #13 (30 DECEMBER 2024)

    Well, Down two players at start of session and they were in mid exploration but at the end of an encounter from last session. SO that means we quickly go over the events of the last session as having missed a session in between we are all a little rusty and disoriented from the holidays. I quickly rule that Postulant Alaric joins up with Hjort in the Secret Room on the 3rd level. There is an option to delay session but the players are excited to play and decide to delve further down the Tower of the Woad Goblins.

    The room is searched, I note we did that last session and t hat treasure was added already and is carried in a Small Sack by Gerean Halfling Swords-Thug, I call the character "Gary". The Party returns to the Hall and travels south to a door before the turn in the corridor. I call for a "Caller" to be chosen of one of the two Characters in the Front of the Marching Order. The Cyclops Vettag is chosen this session. They flank the door while Gerean checks for Traps, stating that its all good and slaps the door the Cyclops forces the door before he can Listen at Doors. A Role Playing aspect of them is they are quite literal and naïve so he takes the Halfling at face value kicking the door open. He fails, there is laughter in the party and I assume since we are in session there is laughter in the hall and make some rolls. The Occupant is aware of the party, hears them and casts a Defensive spell. I disregard the need for a roll for Surprise as the PCs go over how basically the Cyclops in Dragonslayer RPG is Autistic in a sense of a parody of Marvel's corruption of Drax the Destroyer. The more I think about the Cyclops the more it is a mish-mash of pop culture references in one race. They have Bristerhahn move up and Force the Door and I describe the room in its macabre atmosphere of hanging strings of carved bones, bats and rats hanging on leather thongs or nailed to the walls of the chamber and bubbling cauldron. There is a Goblin in Robes wielding a Staff of human make and his three mirror images ! HE orders them to throw down their weapons and he will be merciful stating that Hazeneuxc is powerful. I pronounce this as "has the nukes" with a slight french accent. Bristerhahn shouts a challenge and I roll for Initiative. 

    This encounter has the possibility to be very bad for the party. They lose Initiative and Hazeneuxc casts Hold Person but only gets 1 out of the 4 possible targets. Bristerhahn makes his Saving Throw vs Spell & they all rush in leaving a few of the spellcasters in the hall. BY the end of the round all of the Mirror Images are Dispelled and the Shaman is wounded. I announce Hazeneuxc is casting another spell and the PCs win Initiative disrupting his spell and killing him by the end of the round.  The Spellcasters come into the room to loot the body of the Woad Goblin Shaman. He wore a Steel Skullcap, was carrying several potions and jewelry but no spell-book. The party searches for Secret Doors and hidden items and as the Cyclops wanders about the Room he is constantly being slapped by hanging rats and bats making the bone wind chimes clickity clack as he does. Bristerhahn does as well but to a lesser extent being not quite as tall as the Cyclops. Upon closer examination of the hanging bones though Ravithor discerns there hidden in plain site amongst the normal animals bones are carved hanging linked bones that are actually the Goblin Shaman's Spell Book. They are gathered and added into a sack carried by Ravithor to be researched at a later time. Buzz searches the odd corners of the room and finds nothing. The PCs back reform in the Hall and check out the last remaining door on this level and the Rolls for Wandering Monster have been quite favorable for the party as they have attracted no new unwanted attention. 

    Bursting into the next chamber they Surprise a group of eight female goblins. There is no call for parlay and yield they simply start chopping up the unarmed cowering females. I go through the motions and there are some very hard core rolls made by the party this encounter. A single last goblin is pushed round and threatened to reveal the secrets or treasures but it does not speak common and is slain in a few rounds after literally being pushed around by the PCs. They reform and note the negative space on their map and split the party to search from both opposite rooms of the gap on their map. No one finds any secret doors. Bristerhahn & Vettag are consistently delivering large damaging hits while Buzz seems to roll maximum damage with his Light Crossbow, Allot. This shows up as sniping shots dropping goblins in a single shot as well as Gerean dealing above average damaging hits in a similar fashion.

    While Initiative and Vettag's attack rolls have been very favorable this session Secret Door Checks in general have been terrible for this party. I do not state but apply my ruling quietly that if you fail a Secret Door Check you cannot search for that hidden entrance again until you have gained another level. Same with Failed Locks for a Thief's Open Locks ability. 

    Now, as they form up in the hall after splitting their party they decide to search the negative space from the direction of the hall as a group. They come up with nothing again but I do roll a Wandering Monster Encounter as more Goblins come up the stairs and are not able to surprise the party. It is a medium sized hall but the PCs can close easily and we go over the Charging Rules for Dragonslayer RPG which are if you can Run 20' you get Double Damage Dice and since it does not literally say Straight Line I am going to allow folks to say 'I charge around the corner and attack' to use Charge. They are being reckless so they should at least get a bump for it, no one wants a bunch of cowardly fighters in their party afterall lol. Conversely that means extremely savage creatures will likely do the same enjoying the Double Damage Dice and they sometimes get multiple attacks ! We start using the battlemat since it has been requested by the PCs previously and I have prepared the entire tower to have them ready. IF you do not get fancy with your battlemat you can have these small encounter rooms ready in about 10 minutes for one of these small towers, And I mean all of the rooms in the tower not just one. The battlemats I was afraid was gonna slow down combat and it has actually done quite the opposite. This battle is over quick and the learning curve of positioning to reduce firing into melee plus the pole arm placement to maximize the attacks of opportunity. The goblins are laid low very quickly. There is a moment when we have a Fumble and Bristerhahn again nearly kills Vettag, he is severely wounded though. Their bodies removed from the stairs and they descend.

    Now, I will not go over the series of events that happened next as a huge error was made on my part and it looked like it was going to be a huge TPK. I had the party come down the wrong set of stairs into the second level. I caught on to this as a PC positioned himself on the stairs as things were going south and I decided; and this honestly is out of character for me, to redo the entire encounter coming down to the second level, to do a mulligan and have the party access the level at the Correct approach. As it changes the approach to the situation. IF they had come in through the front door this is the encounter they would have had the same situation BUT they landed on the roof and Descended from upper levels using their Potions of Flying they had used to gain access to Highfell. The going through encounters backwards is how we ended up in this tenuous situation and that was my fault so I did a redo. I know there are purists who are gonna cringe, but I talked it over with my players as I made the decision and no one disagreed so we rolled with it.

    SO, back to the recap as it unfolded part deux

    Descending into an 30 foot square guardroom the PCs are approaching this encounter from above on a spiral staircase. The PCs win Initiative and attack from above gaining the Situational advantages of Attacking from Higher Ground of +1 to Hit and Damage. This apparently applies equally so the Missile weapon players are utilizing it to good effect as well and the four goblin guards shout out but are slain quickly. Their light source spills out into the halls alerting the Goblin Guards nearby. Instead of rallying into marching order we continue with Initiative rolls and Vettag rushes out; Charging, to engage the goblins he hears to the south. This is a bit Chaotic but Bristerhahn follows up but is unable to see clearly as he light source is on the stairs and there are walls blocking he light so steps back into the guard room leaving the Cyclops to battle, others filter out into the hall and the battle is joined with a guard dropped with a solid shot by Buzz again.

 ON the following round Vettag kills the remaining goblin guard then goes up the hall to face the oncoming group of five goblins while Bristerhahn charges over and knocks open the door the goblin guards were guarding revealing  a Golden Dragon Mask human, a cloaked scaly creature answering to Thrall from the masked man and a trio of goblins, one being a powerfully built Woad Goblin. Gerean climbs a damaged statue in the hall and using it as Cover; 50% cover for an Armor Class Bonus of +4 ,  and gaining the Attacking from Above bonuses prepares to pepper  the enemy with arrows from above. Unfortunately the masked villain casts Hold Person and immobilizes Bristerhahn and Ravithor. This makes the entire situation seem grim. The door is roughly bottlenecked but still allows someone to exit the room and as Buzz moved forward to fire down the hall and the goblins coming from the north. The Thrall moves into the hall while the Masked figure casts another protective spell of unknown type upon himself. He takes arrows from Gerean and is wounded by a dagger thrust from Buzz being felled by a strike from Vettag's Halberd shortly after. Buzz flees down the passage as goblin warriors emerge from the room as the goblin warriors come out singly they are shot or hacked by to death but eventually it is just the Goblin Chief and the Masked Cultist. 

    Gerean has to switch to a captured Light Crossbows instead of his Short Bow as he has run out of arrows. Buzz & Vettag are illuminated by Dragon Fire cast by the Masked Cultist. I am unsure of how this went in order but I believe Buzz risked an Attack of Opportunity to run further from the melee and is chased by the Goblin Chief Yusdrewl and laid low; reduced to zero hit points but rolls a 1 on recovery and is up the next round, Vettag is slain by the Masked Cultist at about the same round as Ravithor & Bristerhahn break free of  the Hold Person Spell. There is some conjecture that the earlier Fumble Wounding of Vettag leads to his demise later in this fight and it is pretty sound reasoning. They are engaged by the Masked Cultist and Yusdrewl and Bristerhahn is having a terrible time being able to hit anything. Ravithor is slain by Yusdrewl the Woad Goblin Chief, but Bristerhahn supported by Gerean's bolts raining down from above manages to eventually slay the Masked Cultist & the Yusdrewl.

    It was a nail biter of a session. Were there mistakes made ? Yeah tons of them but everyone was engaged totally into these pitched battles. Two PCs are still fresh in 'reserve' so to speak and Gerean is at max hit points while Bristerhahn is severely wounded. If I introduce new characters mid game I usually have them as recently freed prisoners which there are some figures chained to a wall nearby so  that's easy but I typically have them severely wounded from mistreatment by their captors. There is equipment scattered about the floor and treasure to be looted nearby so they could equip up quickly and join the party. I do not believe they can effectively quit the dungeon easily as they are inside a  tower and have no means of flying away form the top as they are out of Potions of Flying. There are Briyakks that the Gnome or Halfling could ride but that would abandon 3 medium sized PCs to their fate solo within the tower. They have few options and those are full of peril. They have a good assortment of treasure as well so leveling it possible if they manage to escape for a few of them at least thus increasing their survivability of future sojourns.

    I dunno it was a hoot though and there ere allot of laughs to be had so all in all a win for a game session.

    Game Well, Game Often Y'all