My regular group started a new 4e game tonight. We decided to go with the Paragon Tier since we haven’t really done a lot in that level range before (most of our adventures have been in the Heroic Tier).
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I started the session with a cooperative party building exercise. I describe my method in a blog post here. The benefit of doing this sort of thing with a party starting at a higher level is that you can use it to fill in certain blanks in the lives of the players. These things might evolve during the course of the campaign if you start at first level, but starting at 11th level means that a substantial amount of interaction between the players hasn’t happened, when it theoretically could have been happening but we didn’t actually role-play those levels. Basically, the players don’t have the common experience together – cooperative party building alleviates some of that.
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Cast of Characters:
Philaemon – Human Wizard
Remus – Shifter RunePriest
Baoden – Halfling Bard
NightEyes – Human Fighter
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The group was traveling to a small town in the north when they were ambushed by brigands and bears. They made relatively quick work of the group – here is a picture mid-battle:
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(I’m using the battlemap that came with the new WotC 4e module, The Slaying Stone, available at fine game retailers everywhere.)
The red dots on the map above indicate the places from which arrows have been shot, but the PCs can’t see the hidden archers just yet.
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By the end, they had slain 5 archers, 3 pick-axe fighters, a forest bear, and a dire forest bear: (These are all creatures that I generated using the Adventure Tools Monster Builder)
I left the dead bodies on the map as difficult terrain, plus it just looks cool and has the added benefit of making the players feel like they accomplished something at the end of the battle.
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One of the archers ran away and the fighter, NightEyes, had to chase and catch him. They tried to question him, but the man really didn’t know anything, claiming to be only following orders to ambush and rob anyone traveling along the road.
Philaemon the wizard, searching the bodies and looking at the equipment being carried by the brigands, noticed that they all had a strange symbol on their clothes, cloaks, bows, and in some cases, tattooed on their skin. The symbol was a coiled snake and was not a recognized religious symbol and no-one in the party had ever seen the symbol before.
The bard, Baoden, looked around the greater area while Remus (the runepriest) tended to his comrade’s wounds. The bard found the body of a human on the ground (no snake symbol on the body). A search of his possessions revealed a letter written in a language that Baoden did not recognize. He gave the letter to the runepriest and pointed out the location of the body.
Remus and Phileamon looked at the letter, but were unable to decipher more than a few words. It was obviously a derivative of the draconic languages, or maybe an ancestral form of it. They went to a quiet area and performed a comprehend language ritual and deciphered the note, which said:
“Bolem, It is as we feared. Power is being drawn from the ground. There must be a shard here, but it is concealed and I have not been able to locate it. Weel and I are going further into the territory. I pray that Straben and Eord protect us. If we do not return, you know what to do. In loyalty, Gren”
(DM Note: the party knows that pieces of runes and artifacts from the War of Evisceration, which ended 50 years before this session, were not recovered and have been said to form great repositories of power inside the earth where they are lodged. They are said to taint the land above where they are lodged and sometimes to attract creatures seeking power.)
Meanwhile, the bard, tiring of the fighter’s interrogation of the captured archer, tricked NightEyes into leaving the prisoner alone to go help the runepriest. As he was walking away, Baoden cut the ropes binding the prisoner’s hands and feet and set him free. “I won’t forget this,” said the prisoner to the bard, as he was making a quick escape.
The runepriest, getting ready to dig graves for the fallen, inspects the dead human again. He discovers that the man has only been dead for 3 or 4 hours. He also notices that, while the man was quite beat up, he also had some sort of disease.
They finish laying the bodies to rest and head toward town. In about 3 hours, they reach the gates of a small town surrounded by wooden palisades. The guards are charmed by the diplomatic bard and they tell the group to go to the tavern.
In the tavern, many well-to-do nobles are drinking and talking. There is a bard playing a violin on a small stage in the corner and some people dancing near it. The halfling orders drinks for everyone and then watches the other bard.
Soon, the bard on stage finishes his set and heads to the bar to get a drink. Baoden decided that he could do a better job of it and went to the stage and picked up the other bard’s violin and started playing it. He also began doing flips off the stage and onto nearby tables, getting everyone’s attention. People clapped and yelled in appreciation at the bard’s acrobatic and musical talents.
The the owner of the violin, upset at his bawdy use of the violin (and also worried that the halfling was more entertaining than he) went after him. Baoden jumped up onto the chandelier to escape the man’s grasp. Then the fighter cut down the chandelier and the bard fell on his butt, but hopped up, threw the violin into it’s owners arms and quickly made his escape, getting lost in the crowd. The other bard searched for him in vain.
Meanwhile the runepriest and wizard helped put out the fire started by the busted chandelier, repair the scorched floor, and clean up the tavern. The crowd was fleeing the tavern as the fighter put several coins on the bar to take care of the damage.
They found another inn at which to book rooms and turned in for the night.
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Next week, the group may find out what the snake symbol means, or they may look for clues about the letter, or they may go in a totally different direction!
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I hope you enjoy my blog. Is there something you wish I would address? Is there a topic you would like discussed? Did you use something posted on this site and want to give me feedback about how well it went (or didn’t go)? PLease post a comment and let me know (or send an email to the address below). If you have an adventure hook you would like me to flesh out and post here, or you have fleshed it out yourself and want it posted, send an email to:
DMSamuel AT IronNeuronEnterprises DOT com
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Follow me on twitter: @DMSamuel
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Until next time, I wish you good gaming!
~DM Samuel
