Two more sessions of WhiteHack/Deep Carbon Observatory.
Originally shared by Brian Ashford
Two more sessions of WhiteHack/Deep Carbon Observatory.
Here be Spoilarz!
My last record of this game left our heroes facing a witch who was immune to most damage. The PCs had a very messy fight with her and her chaotic goons. They killed her the first time by letting the Ilithid PC eat her brains, then when she came back the human swordsman PC leaped onto her back, pushed his arm through the new hole in the back of her head, down her neck, grabbed onto her heart and ripped it out of her. The rules of her immortality/curse state that she can't die the same way twice, I figured that was going to be a new one for her.
At one point they discussed killing her by using the miracle of telekinesis cut off the blood supply to her brain, until Dave reminded them that he had just eaten said brain.
In yesterday's session the PCs finally reached the dam. They took the long way round and approached it from the hillside, a giant stone golem roaring at them from the base of the dam, angry that they had circumvented that particularly lethal encounter. Dave's ilithid, amused by this situation gave the golem the finger. Now, I figured that a stone golem made hundreds of years before probably wouldn't understand the gesture, my dice disagreed and gave me a 2 on the reaction table. The golem started climbing the dam.
Dave prepared for the (HD14) golem.
The other PCs legged it.
Dave waited until it's head peeked over the lip of the wall when it removed one rock-crushing hand from the wall to swing at him, Dave smashed it in the face with all his strength. He rolled a crit. He had a small chance. The golem rolled to save, it only fails saves on a 20, but I gave it disadvantage due to the critical attack. The dice roll 19 and 20, the golem falls to it's death.
3000XP, all for Abster the Ilithid.
In the previous eight sessions combined he had only earned 5299XP!
It was a great lesson in trusting the dice. I really didn't want the golem to kill anyone last night, I just wanted Dave to run away. I considered give Dave a chance, or a bonus, or having someone or something else come in and save the day or at least distract the thing. But I have stuck true to the dice all the way through the game so far and I left Abster to his rocky fate. Turned out the dice gods had something way cooler in mind.
(Ben McCallum, Jamie Prentice, David Snoddy, Patrick Stuart)
Two more sessions of WhiteHack/Deep Carbon Observatory.
Here be Spoilarz!
My last record of this game left our heroes facing a witch who was immune to most damage. The PCs had a very messy fight with her and her chaotic goons. They killed her the first time by letting the Ilithid PC eat her brains, then when she came back the human swordsman PC leaped onto her back, pushed his arm through the new hole in the back of her head, down her neck, grabbed onto her heart and ripped it out of her. The rules of her immortality/curse state that she can't die the same way twice, I figured that was going to be a new one for her.
At one point they discussed killing her by using the miracle of telekinesis cut off the blood supply to her brain, until Dave reminded them that he had just eaten said brain.
In yesterday's session the PCs finally reached the dam. They took the long way round and approached it from the hillside, a giant stone golem roaring at them from the base of the dam, angry that they had circumvented that particularly lethal encounter. Dave's ilithid, amused by this situation gave the golem the finger. Now, I figured that a stone golem made hundreds of years before probably wouldn't understand the gesture, my dice disagreed and gave me a 2 on the reaction table. The golem started climbing the dam.
Dave prepared for the (HD14) golem.
The other PCs legged it.
Dave waited until it's head peeked over the lip of the wall when it removed one rock-crushing hand from the wall to swing at him, Dave smashed it in the face with all his strength. He rolled a crit. He had a small chance. The golem rolled to save, it only fails saves on a 20, but I gave it disadvantage due to the critical attack. The dice roll 19 and 20, the golem falls to it's death.
3000XP, all for Abster the Ilithid.
In the previous eight sessions combined he had only earned 5299XP!
It was a great lesson in trusting the dice. I really didn't want the golem to kill anyone last night, I just wanted Dave to run away. I considered give Dave a chance, or a bonus, or having someone or something else come in and save the day or at least distract the thing. But I have stuck true to the dice all the way through the game so far and I left Abster to his rocky fate. Turned out the dice gods had something way cooler in mind.
(Ben McCallum, Jamie Prentice, David Snoddy, Patrick Stuart)
Wow, that sounds amazing! Now that I've read the module it's even more fun to follow along your story.
ReplyDeleteI've also realized that the most tense and exhilarating moments in our game have been when everything rides on one dice roll. It can be an attack roll or a save or anything really, but when the player and the rest of the table knows the stakes it's great to watch them roll. As long as the players are free to decide when to bet it all and when to play it safe, I like to push them hard.
An honest PC death is better than a fudged survival, but it's always tempting to add another save and another: "If you fail this roll you fall to your death... oh, but if you save you can catch the rope... oh, but if you save again you can catch a branch that's" and so on. As soon as you go there, some of the excitement is lost.