This session we finished up the first chapter, along with moving into a little bit of the next with some role-play.
The characters:
- Drystan Silverhart – Level 3 Aasamar Paladin (Knight of Solamnia)
- Yseult De Lorimar – Level 3 Human Warlock (Noble)
- “Fletch” Siannodel – Level 3 Kagonesti Elven Ranger (Folk Hero)
- Sabelina – Level 3 Human Cleric of Gilean (Acolyte)
- Sidekicks: Hrigg Roundrook and Tem Temble
This session started with the combat cliffhanger we wrapped up session 4. The players were facing the Ogre commander of this force of the Red Dragon army, along with several Draconians and a Boilerdrak. This was also the first session where I actually ended up using the combat events rolls… sort of. I only ended up using them once, but it did end up having something of an effect.
Going into this encounter, my main thing I was wondering about was how to handle the Boilerdrak. On the one hand, if you get hit by this thing, at the player character’s level, you’re dead. Also, the explosive blast that happens when it fails an attack roll will kill you outright as well. On top of that, the armor itself takes 100 HP to actually kill, and is treated as an object instead of a monster. The encounter has the chance of explosion when rolling a 1 on the “fire” action as something of an intended equalizer. I decided to up the character’s odds a little bit a couple ways.
The first was at each combat before the encounter, I rolled a d20 for the “Fire” check – to see if the Boilerdrak blew up before the main fight – if it did, I’d have the Ogre come in with several Draconians (who had taken some damage) instead. That didn’t happen though, which lead to my second equalizer – if the Boilerdrak took damage before the “Fire” action, I’d roll the dice with disadvantage, and a 1-2 threat range once the Boilerdrak was “bloodied” – the idea because this is a gnomish device, it’s inherently finicky, so getting slammed around the party (particularly during operation) increased the chance of a mishap. I also ruled that because I was using Tessa Morecroft’s Map Pack (Affiliate Link), and that let me know what clear line of sights there were, if you were in a position that obstructed line of sight due to cover, you’d get advantage on your save against the blast, and that a successful save nullified damage, and a failed save was half damage.
Instead, the party found their way to quickly neutralize the Boilerdrak – Drystan initially lept onto the Boilerdrak in an attempt to attack from above, and ended up throwing down with the Ogre instead once he realized the Boilerdrak was covered (a flamethrower tank instead of a halftrack). So, Drystan lept onto the Ogre, who was right next to the Boilerdrak, with the idea that he was going to try and sort of slam it into the Boilerdrak. In the grand tradition of his past attempts to go one-on-one with bosses, he critted and dealt enough damage to kill the boss very quickly, and then also critted on the Athletics check to slam the boss into the tank.
On top of this, the tank was already “bloodied”. With two crits in a row, plus being at half health, I decided that the barrel of the Boilerdrak was bent, and any attempt to operate it would be an automatic misfire. I then had each of the Draconians inside make a perception check to see if they’d recognize the bent barrel – they all failed, some of them almost critically failing. So, they fired, the tank blew up, and Drystan (who was behind a wall), and Fletch (who was behind cover, because he was sniping everybody) made their saves, but most of the other Draconians in the blast radius failed.
This didn’t mean the party didn’t run into difficulty – Draconians (particularly Boaz) do two attacks per round, and Hrigg took two crits in a row, which nearly killed him outright. I fully expected him to go down – especially since we’ve now got a proper cleric in the party with Sabelina, but the party came to his aid and got him back to full health.
From there the focus was more on roleplay. After the last of the refugees, the guards, and the party made their escape, and we arrived outside the Solamnic city of Kalaman, Drystan presented Darrett with his armor, and the party assisted with helping survivors, before heading into town with Darrett to present a message from the mayor.
I’d already let them know that Lord Bakaris and his failson had gone into town ahead of them, so they weren’t particularly surprised to run into Bakaris The Younger outside the Kalaman council chamber. The party was admitted and gave their testimony – I tied the dead Solamnic patrol that the party encountered in the first session with the Marshal mentioning that many of his reconnaissance patrols investigating the Red Dragon army had not returned. I also decided to give a bit of a dichotomy between Bakaris the Older and the Younger here. The Bakaris family had wealth, power, and privilege, but Bakaris the Older had encountered seemingly larger problems before as the ostensible aristocratic “head” of the town (even if everyone effectively considers the Mayor the actual head of the town) – bandits, marauding monsters, and so on. Bakaris had been able to resolve those problems by throwing his political or financial weight around – calling for aid from Kalaman, posting a bounty for adventurers to handle the problem, etc. This is bigger than that and he doesn’t actually know what to do, and that worries him. Bakaris the Younger doesn’t get that (which ties in with what his arc is over the course of the adventure).
Next session, everyone levels up to level 4… and we’re going to switch over to the 2024 rules. We’ll see how that goes.
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