We’re approaching the end of the chapter, and the pace is picking up.
The characters (The Vingaardians):
- Drystan Silverhart – Level 5 Aasimar Paladin (Knight of Solamnia)
- Yseult De Lorimar – Level 5 Human Warlock (Noble)
- “Fletch” Siannodel – Level 5 Kagonesti Elven Ranger (Folk Hero)
- Sabelina – Level 5 Human Cleric of Gilean (Acolyte)
- Sidekicks: Hrigg Roundrook and Tem Temble
This session moved very quickly. The party returned from Kalaman after helping to take Wheelwatch Outpost last session, to learn that the army had been sent out to go after a splinter force from the Dragon Army, led by Lord Bakaris. As soon as I mentioned that Lord Bakaris was in command, the players had a very immediate “Oh, Crap” reaction, which is good – that meant that I did a good job setting up the character. They very quickly rode out, leading to the Battle at the Steel Springs Ford.
As with other such battles, I’m not using the miniatures rules, which ultimately meant the battle went pretty quickly. I’d say that my missing the wounded Kalaman troops whose retreat the party was covering only had a movement of 15′ didn’t help, but even there, there wasn’t really enough hostile manpower for this fight. I could probably have thrown in a couple more mounted soldiers there, but ultimately I think it was fine.
From there, the party returned to town and got a surprise about a bunch of Solamnics arriving in town, and immediately going to get an audience with the Governor. Since they needed to go and report on how badly the battle went anyway, they followed. Because History has become something of the catch-all “What do I know about X” skill, when the party members – particularly Drystan’s player – asked if they knew anything about the commander of these knights – Caradoc, and rolled a natural 20, I let them know that they didn’t know anything about a current commander named Caradoc, but there’s a historical Solamnic of the same name, and he was the name of Lord Soth’s Seneshal, so they’re not sure why someone would choose to name their kid that.
A bit of a house rule I did here – Paladin’s Divine Sense ability is something players either overuse, or never use when it’s needed. So, my house rule here is when you roll a perception check over something where they’d want to use that ability, I tip them off that maybe they should use it, or give them a free use if they succeed by enough. Drystan’s player succeeded by enough with the undead guards placed at the entrance of the Council chambers to be tipped off that they were undead, leading into a fight with the guards.
This fight also ran a little too quickly, in this case because I slipped up on accounting for damage resistance with Fletch’s attacks. Specifically, the psychic damage shouldn’t be covered by Damage Resistance, but the regular damage from arrows should. That said, Drystan had resistance to Necrotic, so he was probably in the best position to go toe-to-toe with these guards, and because the time the characters went to the castle was in the evening, Fletch was in a good position to stand up to these two undead soldiers as well.
We ended the session with the characters verbally confronting Caradoc, complete with Drystan trying to magically challenge Caradoc to a duel (which Caradoc made his save on). The session wrapped with Drystan taking a swing at Caradoc with his hammer, which we decided would be a good JoJo “Roundabout” moment.
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