The Disadvantage of Superior Action Economy

Arowe, Fortu and Liga Bur. Having the Party made up of three Fighter class Player Characters posed a few problems for me as your Dungeon Master.

Easily solved problems though.

An Elven Archer, a Human Gladiator and a Halfling Tracker (plus his hound) actually made creating combat encounters pretty easy. All I needed was a way to divvi out healing when needed. Potions, plentiful and freely available would have done it but it also gave me the option of shoehorning in a suitable Non Player Character.

Rifkin; A Bard who could both bolster the Party and heal you during and after battles. He also allowed me to offer advice within the game when needed. He worked well for me because his Bardic ‘inspiration’ and personal cowardice made him super-easy to handle during combat encounters. 

This meant three/five characters vs whatever monster/monsters you were facing sped by quite quickly in round by round combat.

Then, thanks to David/Fortu’s moment of mercy, you also acquired three more melee based henchmen. Henchmen that I hadn’t planned on giving you.

Henshaw; a defensive based but intelligent Fighter, Doberman; a mindless chop-monster and Barbella; the slightly more complicated sort-of-thief-back-stabber.

So now, with seven/eight ‘heroes’ vs whatever monster/monsters I threw at you. Combat became twice as slow…

Half as fast?

Then Scott ‘evolved’ Liga Bur from Ranger to full Druid and added extra healing (if he ever selected it) and several more options in combat, not least of which, was the ability to summon multiple more combatants during the battles. 

He also rescued the flaming executioner/prisoner; Dijonn and had him bound to a magical staff. Another, potentially independently acting, morally dubious, member of the team!

Seven/nine (plus) ‘heroes’ vs whatever monster/monsters I throw at you.

Then Assif ‘retired’ his quick-on-the-draw, archer; Arowe and brought in a Dwarven Cleric and his fantastically well trained Mule; Murmul.

Seven/Ten (plus) ‘heroes’ vs whatever monster/monsters I throw at you.

More combat options to be sure and yet another healing opportunity but in Banaal’s second combat encounter, he summoned an Air-elemental. A pattern he’d oft repeat!

Now combats are running at around three-times slower…

A third as fast?

I did ‘cancel’ your evil trio of Henchies recently but I almost immediately replaced them with the (much more dependable and untreacherous) good triplets.

Given the current numbers, it can still work but it’s gotten progressively harder for me to plan and run the adventure, the more wheels are simultaneously turning. More player options mean more planning for me and more combatants, perversely means much, much, much longer combats.

In addition, the larger and more powerful the Party, the tougher and more numerous the enemy needs to be to compensate. The obvious additional consequence but pertinent to the speed of combat.

I’m guessing that ( unless they’re easy-peasy walk-overs) this slows the ‘average’ battle down to about one combat per session.

The last Mar-Gin river crossing combat encounter involved sixteen 4th level Rogues, a 5th level Witch and a 9th level Assassin verses 8th level; Fortu, Liga Bur and Banaal, 6th level Rifkin, three 4th level Fighter triplets; Locket, Chape and Ringo, a 5th level Captain Lynchin, four of his 2nd level guards plus the dogs; Mir Hundur and Deo, five riding gee-gees, the massive Night Fever, Dijonn and two divine summoned creatures; the Celestial Hippogryph and the giant Squid!

Plus poor innocent bystander (boat-stander?); Jane!

Forty-two (weird cosmic coincidence?) pieces simultaneously on the board!

To be honest, confusing as it is, I kinda-sorta love it, but it does potentially create two (four-hour) session combats. 

Ultimately, this is the bloated (despite only having three player-characters) situation we’ve created for ourselves and if you can live with it, so can I.

:)

Kicking Ass(assin)

EVERYTHING’S GONE WRONG!!!

Old-man Danté can barely believe his own eyes!

Somehow his entire plan had collapsed, like a crooked house of cards, in less than a minute!

After seemingly defeating the Halfling Druid, his air-support Witch; Mallophor had fled, due to the concentrated crossbow fire of the Zinerian guards. 

The same local guards that had miraculously beaten four of his invisible Assassins!

Then the big, heavily armoured Fighter had somehow managed to swim from the mid-river moored barge to his shore, undetected before chopping down half-a-dozen of his men!

Still, Danté felt confident.

All but two of the adventurers were marooned onboard the sinking barge and of the other two, one was dead (or hiding) in the water and the other was being worn down by his remaining men. A flapping, summoned Hippogryph had been a distraction but his men had made relatively short work of it.

Then though, when he’d committed to dispatching the Fighter himself, the man hadn’t fallen! Despite cleverly slipping his enchanted blade through a small gap in the warrior's octopus-styled plate-mail. Despite his hard won skills and murderous intent, the darkly armoured man had somehow managed to twist away, just enough, to save his kidneys from the killing stroke!

Danté couldn’t believe it!

Even his precious poison had failed to affect the bastard-sword swinging annoyance!

After evading another flaming pillar, Danté steps back into his conjured fog bank and, from his wand, casts a net of thick, sticky webs as he passes. If the Fighter is confident enough to enter this obscured area, he’ll be caught up and stopped regardless.

His men are lost now, but no matter; he can always recruit and train more. The priority now is to escape. Turning invisible, despite the slash he’d gotten from the Fighter, he smiles. No-one can stop him now…

Suddenly root-like tendrils wriggle from the ground, trying to grab at him, but despite his agility boosting buffs being, somehow dispelled, he’s still fast enough to tip-toe through this new impediment. It might actually slow the wretched Fighter down even more.

As he clears the end of the fog-bank, Danté glances back over his shoulder. No-one’s following. Unseen now, he makes his way up the slope and into the mountain pass. Eighteen seconds and he’ll be out of the accursed adventurers’ reach.

Suddenly a crossbow bolt creases his invisible shoulder!

Spinning around in disbelief, just for a moment he sees the Dwarf Cleric, crossbow raised, clear of the fog-bank, behind him, before he disappears from sight!

How’s the Dwarf seeing him? How’s he moving through the grabbing weeds? Why wasn’t he caught by his conjured webs?!

Danté tries to run but the traitorous ground continues to drag at his heels!

Then the Dwarf; Banaal reappears, even closer now and shoots him again!

This time the bolt draws blood!

Looking back over his shoulder, the invisible Assassin feels ice-cold fear trickle down his old spine.

His feet are clear now and he’s just six seconds from the turn but, with a sinking feeling, he knows he’s not going to make it.

This wasn’t fair! 

He’d worked so hard! 

Waited so long! 

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go down!!!

Subotage

Coordinating their actions with the sudden snagging of the barge mid-river, the two young Assassins screw their time-release devices directly onto the underside of the Spinning Jenny’s hull. It’s a difficult underwater task, but the Witch bestowed ‘water-breathing’ potions make it eminently possible and they’ve drilled for this mission in more ways than one. The very act of securing these two delayed release items in place, alerts the passengers above but all they need is about half a minute.

The small screw holes consequently allow river water to seep up onto the barge’s flat bottom but at a rate unlikely to alarm or much reduce the ferry’s buoyancy or speed. The screw holes though, are merely a precursor of what’s to come.

After a thumbs up gesture to each-other, the two Assassins release their grips from under the hull and allow the current of the river to carry them clear of the boat. Although still underwater, they can see their Witch air-support exchanging magical bolts of energy with an eagle. An eagle who’s obviously the Halfling Druid shape-changer they’d been forewarned about.

Flaming crossbow bolts also continue to rain down on the barge from their teammates on the Agentian side of the river. Their plan is working, despite a few wrinkles…

The armoured knight is in the water but somehow not drowning and striking surprisingly fast towards the far side, where their leader; Danté is standing.

Exchanging looks, the two submerged young men gesture frantically to each other. Should they continue to drift to safety or chase after the man they know as; Fortu?

Just then a terrific splash pulls their attention. The Druid-eagle; Liga Bur has taken a flaming bolt from one of their teammates’ crossbows and fallen into the water.

Then, just as the timer was set for, the two bombs under the barge explode! Their upward facing charges, momentarily lifts the barge up off the water and blasts two huge holes in the flat hull, sending wooden splinters into everyone standing nearby. 

The horses shriek as they rear and strain against their tethered reins, the two dogs struggle to obey their master’s instructions and Rifkin and the Ferry-woman; Jane are injured. Only the sturdy Dwarf-priest; Banaal, his stubborn Mule and the huge, black Warhorse seem unfazed.

The two submerged Assassins grin and high-five each-other.

Nothing could go wrong now!

D&D is Confusing and Difficult to Schedule

Last weeks session ended up mostly being about finishing off the complicated, multiple combatant, river crossing encounter. Good fun but exhausting. It ended with Fortu, Liga Bur and Banaal doggedly hunting down the badly injured but invisible and cunning; Danté. Fortunately for the Party, Banaal’s magical cloak gives him the ability to become ethereal and therefore see other invisible, ethereal creatures. I took that to mean that he could therefore see ALL invisible creatures.

After reading the rules however, I discovered that it doesn’t actually allow for that.

So, as a group, do we decide to double down on my error and allow all invisible characters and creatures to see each-other for the remainder of the campaign or accept Banaal’s observation of Danté was just a strange (possibly god given) glitch in our shared fantasy?

As for the next session, are any of you, all of you free for the morning of any of these weekend dates?

July

Saturday the 4th

Sunday the 5th

Saturday the 11th

Sunday the 12th

Saturday the 18th

Sunday 19th

Let me know if and when you’re available in this month as soon as you can and I’ll get to work building the next set of glue and cardboard traps encounters.

Thanks boys for the quickie response. Sunday the 19th of July is our mutually selected game-date. Now, will it be another massively complicated and overblown combat encounter or maybe just a talky-talky one? I’ve got four weeks to think about it and then four days to actually write something down!

The Three Debt Arrears

Gazing at the gleaming longsword in his hand, Chape examines the perfect blade, exquisite hilt and customised blue leather grip. It’s a beautiful sword. A weapon forged by a master craftsman. An artisan working in unison with a specialist wizard. Although he’d seen many magical weapons before, he’d never dreamed of ever actually owning one. 

Tearing his eyes from the fantastically expensive, gifted sword, he looks to the faces of his equally dumbfounded brothers.

“These swords could save our parents’ farm. We could pay off all their debts and have plenty left to replenish the livestock and even buy some extra adjoining land from our neighbours…”

Chape’s words trail off and his brother; Locket takes up the thought.

“The sale of just ONE of these swords could do that!”

Ringo’s the one who finishes the thought though. 

“Selling these gifts would be an insult to Rifkin and his adventurer friends. Our wages are already covering the loan interest repayments and we’ll eventually find a way to cover the original obligation.”

Circling back, Chape, claps both his identical brothers on their sturdy shoulders.

“Agreed. Although he referred to it being a ‘small gift’, we all know there’s nothing small about it. We show our gratitude to Rifkin, Liga Bur, Banaal and Fortu by guarding them with our lives. We’re already keeping the farm afloat with our three regular wages. When one of us eventually gets promoted to Sargent, we’ll slowly, but surely pay back that outstanding balance.”

Smiling broadly, all three of the brothers raise their shiny, new, enchanted longswords into the air and, for a joyous moment, forget about their current responsibilities and shout out their childhood battle cry…

“THREE FOR ME AND ME FOR THREE!”

Bitter Sweet Lullaby

 

Sitting alone on his bed in the Knot wave inn, illuminated only by the light of a dimmed lantern, Fortu cradles the silver music box on his lap and listens to the gentle tune until it winds down to silence.

The Witch; Megarna had teased him with information about his mother and tried to use it to distract him from his mission for Lord Urdurel. He’d distrusted the woman when he’d first met her pretending to be a fortune teller back in Scarborough and he trusted her even less now.

Still, she’d been surprisingly bold, considering her age and obvious frailty. It’s almost as if she’d wanted him to strike her down…

A knock on the door announces Rifkin’s presence before he enters their shared room, giving him time to wipe his eyes.

Fortu only recognises the artfully crafted music box from his dream, but the music? It stirs up something deep inside of him; Comfort, warmth… Love.

Could these three raised relief portraits truly be of him as a baby, his wild haired, gypsy mother and his handsome father?

Dwarvine Intervention

Everything happened so fast and Captain Lynchin mentally curses himself for lulling so completely. He’d been warned of a possible attack but years of small town complacency had dulled his instincts and now, because of it, his friend lies dead. Poor Freddie; the ferryman barely got the chance to realise what’d happened to him, before he’d crumpled to the shingle covered ground, blood gushing from both his belly and back. The Assassin had literally appeared out of thin-air and driven his shortsword all the way in through his kidneys and out through his guts. The self-same grinning Assassin, who now stands, fully revealed, over Freddie’s still life-blood leaking corpse, laughing manically!

Ordering his four men to attack, they too are immediately ambushed and assaulted by three more of the lying-in-wait, invisible Assassins. Captain Lynchin bares his white teeth and draws his Longsword to join the fray before his (caught flat-footed) men are also slaughtered, but then… A miracle!

All of his men and all four of the, now revealed, Assassins are bathed in a wide circle of golden light. A glow that merely warms him and his men but somehow, causes the Assassins to writhe and scream in agony, giving him and his men the chance they need to finish the job.

Soon all four of the Assassins on his bank are dead and Freddy revenged, but the battle is far from finished. Looking over at the Spinning Jenny, Captain Lynchin sees that the barge is already on fire and taking barrage after barrage of flaming crossbow bolts from the opposite side of the river. 

The Dwarven war-priest Banaal makes momentary eye contact and gives a curt nod of affirmation, as he simultaneously summons a deluge of water from above to extinguish the oily, burning canopy above, before turning his attention to the remaining Assassins on the Argentian bank.

It’s only then that Captain Lynchin realises that it was the Dwarven priest that had saved his life; his life and the lives of all four of his men. That the only reason he’s not lying dead beside his friend; Freddy, is due to the Dwarven priest; Banaal’s divine intervention!