Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 53p

SESSION 53P: DAY 23 – THE CAVES OF CHAOS

ROUND 1B

·        Talmark will need to roll a 13 or more to stablise. He rolls a 20 and stablises. He gurgles foamy blood down his chin has he stares up from his prone position, helpless, as he watches the rest of the party battle against the monster.

·        Normally the men at arms would need to take a morale check for seeing a party members go down but they didn’t witness the shock of Talmark getting smashed so they won’t have to take one.  

·        Per lashes out with his master worked glaive, trying to eliminate the threat of the Chief before he too is taken down. “This is for Talmark!” he yells as he attacks the male. His weapon becomes sleek with bright fluids, as whatever he struck inside the monster was filled with gore. He delivers 12pts of damage, killing the chief. He turns the glaive against the female but she dodges his blow.  (18/24) (5/11)

·        Malandir fires an arrow at the remaining monster but h just misses as she pushes the arrow aside with her morning star. (11/16)

·        Kord advances 15ft and prepares to attack the female. Standing over the prone body of Talmark, he swings his heavy mace at her but isn’t able to connect the more experienced warrior. (11/14)

·        Lucien hands over the Alchemist Fire to Clovis and the torch to Fremont as he directs Fremont to have the men move up 10ft and toss alchemist fire at any enemies at 10ft distance that may emerge from the door. He then double moves to Talmark’s south and yells “Come for me and taste death, spawn of a dung heap!” hoping to draw the female into attacking him rather than Talmark.

·        Barret moves up to support his master and with a double move he is just able to get a flank on the female. 

 

ROUND 2A

·        The female must take two morale checks against a morale of 9 and she rolls 8 and 4 on 2d6 and will continue to fight.

·        She attacks 1 = Per, 2 = Kord, 3 = Lucien, 4 Barret, roll = 1 = Per. She turns on Per, the murderer of her chief, and swings her morning star at the warrior and, contorting to avoid a counter attack, she snaps her weapon into her enemy delivering 8pts of damage. (11/16)

ROUND 2B

·        Malandir fires another deadly arrow at the female but misses in the whirling combat. (5/10)

·        Barret stabs at her with his long sword and, because of his flanking position, he is able to sneak an attack past her defences as he delivers 10pts of damage. (15/18)

·        Per 5ft steps to the west, to give Lucien a flank position, as he attacks the female. An errie snick at the end of his thrust tells him that something vital has been severed in his opponent as he delivers 11pts of damage and the female slumps over dead. (16/24)

AFTER THE BATTLE

Kord pulls his last scroll of Cure Light Wounds and casts it upon Talmark healing him 2pts of damage, not quite making him conscious as he goes from -4 to -2. Looking over Talmark’s body he notices that he has one remaining potion of Cure Light Wounds. Kord pours this down Talmark’s throat healing him a further 3pts of damage taking him from -2 to +1, conscious again but not too strong. 

The party starts to search the room……..

DEW

Starfinder Adventure Path Review

Incident at Absalom Station

After picking up and reviewing the Starfinder Core Rulebook and getting a positive response from my face to face gaming group that they wanted to give Starfinder a go I was a bit perplexed as to where to start.

Normally, with D&D/Pathfinder, I’ll mash together a couple of old modules and make up a lot of stuff and get the guys into a semi-sandbox style campaign, which they really enjoy. But here I don’t quite have the background in the system yet and there are so many more environments in sci-fi compared to medieval/fantasy.

One of the players suggested that I pick up the new Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station, and so I did and here I am.

By necessity this will be a pretty short review because I don’t want to give away spoilers of any significance but let me just say that I’m very happy that I did pick up the module.

It is a great introductory module because it:

-        Introduces the party to the new Starfinder world including one of the major places for party members to adventure in the future, the Absalom Station

-        It gently introduces party members to the mechanics of the game with plenty of skill checks and some exiting but instructive conflicts helping the players to work through new combat rules

-        Gets the players to manage a space ship, which is cool because it’s something new

-        Takes them up a few levels over the course of the module

-        Takes them through a couple of different environments

-        Has a great hook and a good story line

-        Has all the stats for the ‘monsters’ and for NPCs making it easy for the GM to manage his or her first campaign.

So unfortunately I cannot say too much more except that it’s a very high quality product, as you’d expect with Paizo, and well worth the price.

I’m glad I bought it and it’ll certainly kick start our next campaign.

DEW

Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 53o

SESSION 53o: DAY 23 – THE CAVES OF CHAOS 

"Shall we seed the area before that silent door with caltrops before taking on what sounds like the Chief?” enquires Lucien. “I'd hate to get flanked by more bugbears without having some sort of hindrance on them. Perhaps coat the area with oil and have myself and Clovis standing by with Alchemical Fires to toss out if any exit? It would take us out of the coming fight, but for good reason, if that may be a champion or a group in there."

Lucien hopes it will all be for naught, but steels himself for the worst.

Lucien breaks out a scroll of Shield of Faith, mumbling to himself about meaning to cast that earlier, but good fortune, it would have been wasted as things worked out. He wants to ensure if he is held in reserve to act as some sort of holding force that he is well protected.

"Using the caltrops again is a wise precaution," Per states. "When we're ready, I say we pay the male and female a visit. With luck, the male will be their leader and we'll catch him unawares."

"Yes, the Chief first” agrees Talmark. “I'd hate to take on any others but then be hurt for the showdown. Better to take him out first, then if we have to leave before finishing the clearing their next leader will be much weaker than this fellow sounds. Kord, please give him a good blast of Asmodeus' power. Let him feel HIS wrath before he feels our steel!"

And that seals the plan. 

Malandir, Kord, Talmark and Per advance to the western door. Malandir seeds the eastern door with caltrops and then gets back into formation. On the pre-arranged signal, Lucien casts Shield of Faith upon himself as Talmark and Per try to boom the door. 

The door is a simple wooden door which is locked (DC15 with 10hp and a Hardness of 5 – see page 413 of the Core Rule Book). Talmark and Per have had mixed results attempting to break a door of that nature but considerably more success in hacking their way through. As per page 173 of the Core Rule Book to attempt to Smash an object is an automatic hit with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon on an inanimate object if you use a full round action. 

Per and Talmark line up their shots. Talmark does 12 – 5 hardness = 7pts of damage to the door. Per also does 12 – 5 hardness = 7pts of damage. The door shatters under the assault of their blows. 

  

As the door comes down they stare across the room at a tough old bugbear, who is obviously the Chieftain, and a massive female, easily the size of a normal male, who is his mate. 

SURPRISE ROUND

·        Kord immediately Channels Negative Energy for 2pts of damage. It’s a DC 14 Will save and the bugbears have a Will save modifier of +1 and will need to roll a 13 or better to pass. They roll 8 and 3 and both take 2pts of damage.

·        Malandir fires an arrow at the flat footed Chief and he just hits the monster in the right shoulder. The arrow buries deep into his opponent as it deals 13 points of damage. (14/19)

·        Talmark charges the Chief hoping to take him out of the fight and then to cleave into the female. His strike leaves a wound slick with gore as he delivers 11pts of damage. However, cleaving into the female he cannot keep his balance and misses. (13/21) (3/11)

·        Per charges the male, hoping to finish him off but he is unable to connect against the wily old general. (5/13)

·        Kord calls up Lucien and the reinforcements, just in case something emerges from the other door. They move up the corridor 20ft to the aid of their comrades.

ROUND 1A

Party initiative roll = 6 + 0 = 6

Bugbear initiative roll = 14 – 1 = 13

·      Baroret the Cruel takes the lead as he swings his massive morning star at 1-3 = Per, 4-6 = Talmark, roll = 6 = Talmark. He bashes Talmark’s defences aside with overwhelming strength allowing his weapon to dig in without mercy as he delivers 21pts of damage. He immediately directs the female to attack Per. (17/25)

·       The female hefts her weapon at Per but Per dodges the deadly blow. (6/11)

 

DEW