Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 41d

SESSION 41d: DAY 17 – CRAGMAW CAVE

ROUND 3A

·        Clovis must take a morale check for being wounded for the first time in this combat. He rolls 14 and will fight on.

·        Lucien goes full defense. He directs the men at arms to surround and flank the remaining troglodyte yelling “Take this abomination down!”

·        Barret moves 10ft to the south west and stabs at the monsters back (19). As the blade of his sword cuts across the shoulders of the monsters he delivers 4pts of damage.

·        Frustrated, Malandir drops his bow and draws his longsword as he 5ft steps to the north. He stabs wildly at the monster but cannot hit (8).

·        Freemont slashes at the beast and hits (15) it in the left leg, putting the troglodyte down for good as he delivers 11pts of damage.

·        Kord Channels Negative Energy for 2pts of damage. He protects Per, Talmark and Clovis from the damage. The three troglodytes roll 4, 15 and 4. One saves. They’ll take 2pts and 1pt of damage respectively (Kord has Channeled 4 times so far today. He can Channel 6 times in total). 

·        Per stabs at his opponent and hits (16) it in the chest killing the monster instantly as the deadly blow penetrates clean through the beast, delivering 16pts of damage.

·        The sickened and half blinded Talmark swings Felldrac but is unable to hit his opponent (5).

·        Clovis double moves 25ft to the north to provide support to the three northern party members.

DM’s note: I’ve realised that it can be difficult for the players to know whether their attacks are simply ineffective or if they are just rolling badly because there is no feedback for them to see the attack die roles which you would normally get to see in a live game. Often when the characters don’t hit monsters for a number of rounds in a row it is usually just a series of bad dice roles, which the players cannot see. For example, Malandir actually has a good chance to hit this combat as he is not sickened and has infravision but he has just been unluckily with the die rolling. Same for Talmark. Per, on the other hand, has just been plain lucky, as has Barret. To provide more feedback I’ve noted the unmodified die roll for each attack in brackets in each dot point. If players would prefer the modified die roll please let me know and I’ll put it in instead. Another option would be to put both in a format such as the following, (18/22), where the first number is the unmodified roll and the second number is the modified roll.

ROUND 3B

·        The remaining troglodytes sense their doom and double their efforts to take down the party.

·        The monster opposite Kord attacks with renewed vigor. He catches Kord across the throat with a slashing claw, wounding the evil priest with 5pts of damage.  (16/18), (15/17), 17,/19)

·        The remaining troglodyte attacks Talmark but for all its biting and slashing with its claw it cannot wound the warrior. (6/8), (9/11), (2/4)

DM’s note: I think the unmodified / modified format probably works better as shown above. Also putting the die rolls at the end of the dot point makes it easier for me to quickly jot them down rather than trying to put them somewhere in the middle of a sentence. I think I prefer this format and will adopt it from now on.

ROUND 4A

·        Before anyone can act, Kord Channels Negative Energy. Again he protects Per, Talmark and Clovis as he delivers up to 5pts of damage. The troglodytes roll 20 and 10 to save and take 2pts and 5pts of damage respectively. Kord grins with evil satisfaction as his opponent withers and dies.

·        Talmark 5ft steps to the north west to open an attack route for Clovis. He swings his two handed sword at the remaining foe but cannot strike a blow. (6/8)

·        Per attacks the monster but similarly misses. (8/8)

·        Clovis 5ft steps to the north but he too cannot hit the crafty monster. (12/11)

·        Malandir double moves around to the east to start to surround the monster.

·        Lucien double moves to the north to support the rest of the party.

·        Barret double moves 40ft to the north east. He tries to but cannot keep up with the speedy elf because of his armour.

·        Fremont double moves to the north to support the rest of the party. 

ROUND 4B

·        Fixated on its original opponent, the remaining troglodyte launches itself at Talmark but it cannot hit. (6/8), (1/3), (10/12)

ROUND 5A

·        Clovis 5ft steps to the north east to flank the monster and to open an avenue of attack for Fremont. He stabs at the troglodyte with his sword and hits the beast in the back dealing 8pts of damage and killing it. (14/15) 

The party checks the bodies of their opponents. Whilst they aren’t carrying any weapons of any value they are carrying a total of 24gp.

Malandir curses as he realises that the troglodytes don’t have any ears and thus the monster bounty will not be able to be collected for this lot from the Burg. He does not however, with some satisfaction, that they do have nice and probably quit valuable skins. Although tired, the party gets to work skinning the monsters and dealing with their bodies.

Whilst toiling, per feels like he has learned a lot during the days events. Indeed, both Per and Malandir now have enough experience to rise a level and will do so the next time the party is able to reach the Burg.

DEW