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Post by Sidera on Sept 18, 2016 23:55:03 GMT
Just finished what I would consider my first real session as a DM and although not inherently spectacular I just wanted to share this milestone with you guys  For those of you who didn't read my Meet and Greet post some quick background - Whilst on holiday I was peer pressured by my brother and boyfriend to start Dming the Out of the Abyss campaign for them without any real prep, it was a disaster and pretty much ended in a TPK after just two sessions resulting in frustrated players and a frustrated me. We agreed to restart the campaign with fresh characters after I had more time to prep and felt I could actually do a decent job at running it and my boyfriend promised he wouldn't run off by himself in the dangerous drow outpost without telling anyone where he was going... Today was the day when we restarted the campaign! The two players, my boyfriend and my brother, played as a Deep Gnome Wizard (school of illusion) and a Tiefling Cleric of Pelor. I also gave them the NPC's Jimjar, deep gnome rogue, and eldeth, dwarvern ranger, to control to beef out the party as well as take the pressure of me having to keep track of so many NPC's. For those of you unfamiliar with the campaign, the characters start off imprisoned in a drow outpost with about 9 NPC's and no gear making the first task of the day to escape. The first time we played this was rushed and they tried to escape without any prep or knowing where any of their gear was stored so this time i eased them into the game. Apart from already having a better idea of how powerful the drow are by getting slaughtered by them in the first attempt, I also gave them sheets before the game with stuff they had noticed in the days they had already been there setting ideas in their heads of areas to follow up. I had the cleric of pelor being forced to clean the drow shrine to lolth everyday so he specifically noticed the interactions between the drow in there, such as a scarred drow recently coming into speak to the junior priestess and catching sections of their conversation. On the other hand the gnome wizard had seen a drow with a wand he noticed when he arrived who had disappeared since but another drow now had the wand. With some communication and exchanging information between the players characters they deduced that the scarred drow was the original leader of the drow warriors but had been in an accident and had been replaced and was somewhat bitter about it. Overall this may have not been the most eventful session but it went sooo much better than the first attempt. They now know there is more to this outpost than just going balls to the wall and fighting their way out so I feel this is major improvement on both my side as a DM and their side as players, hopefully they will all make it out in one piece this time!  |
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Post by lasersniper on Sept 19, 2016 5:45:28 GMT
Well sounds like it is going well. The group I was planing Out of the Abyss with tends to enjoy combat and little else. So the DM at the time decided to accommodate that mentality and allow a balls to the wall escape by supplementing our breakout with a demon attack. I would have liked to figure out some other way to break out myself, but it was fun. Also, I laughed so hard when I saw your signature. Your players are halfway to beating their high score xD.
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Post by Sidera on Sept 19, 2016 15:08:31 GMT
So the DM at the time decided to accommodate that mentality and allow a balls to the wall escape by supplementing our breakout with a demon attack. Yeh that's something mentioned in the book, its supposed to foreshadow that demons are getting more active in the Underdark. I included that in my first attempt to help distract the drow on their reckless escape. But now the players know that is a possibility I am going to change it somewhat to make the game feel fresh. Also, I laughed so hard when I saw your signature. Your players are halfway to beating their high score xD. haha, I'm glad you liked it! I was thinking of adding 'Reason for TPK: Gnome wizard really wanted candlesticks'  |
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Post by Sidera on Sept 21, 2016 23:59:54 GMT
Thought I'd update this with the news of our second session. Good news none of the players (or imprisoned npc's) died!
After some more daily chores, which the gnome wizard is now excluded from after giving away that he is still able to cast cantrips, the players discovered that there was a hold up somewhere meaning they hadn't been transferred to the drow city yet. The drow soldiers are getting restless and fed up 'baby sitting' for the prisoners and Mistress Ilvara is heading out herself to try and find the source of the hold up. This got the big bad out the way allowing their potential escape to be made somewhat easier.
After a tumultuous discussion before bed causing the NPC's and characters to go to bed disheartened and not on the best of terms, due to their lack of plan/progress at escaping, the Tiefling Cleric awoke the Deep Gnome Rogue 'Jimjar' and hoisted him up to attempt to pick the lock of the slave pen door with a crossbow bolt he had nicked from a guard. Upon rolling a natural one the bolt snapped and jammed in the lock and a guard on duty overhear and go to check what is going on and catch the gnome near the gate who claims he was just using the chamberpot, which he believes.
Before the group awake the deep gnome wizard plants the second crossbow bolt on the Orc 'Ront' (who had stolen his silk rope the day before) planning to turn him in to the guards for contraband and get him thrown to the spiders. The next morning when Ront goes for his morning piss the bolt falls out his trousers and is seen by the other NPC's and characters. The wizards plot is foiled and the Cleric persuades Ront to give him the bolt which he then gives to Jimjar. Crisis avoided!
However when the guards go to unlock the door to send the characters to their usual chores its jammed and suspicion falls on Jimjar after he was seen up in the night. The guards get their leader who brings a spare set of keys (after the first set gets mangled in the now dodgy lock) and he orders the prisoners are all searched, starting with the one under most suspicion. Knowing Jimjar does indeed have another bolt on him the Cleric gets the Myconid Stool to send out a telepathic signal for the group to bum rush the guards and as soon as the door is opened the fight begins!
As soon as the Cleric exits the room he casts silence stopping the guards from calling for help and they somehow manage to take down two drow and knock their leader into the spider webs below. The third drow, an elite, runs to get help but a Vrock flies in causing the backup to be waylaid.
Whilst they have the luck of the distraction the prisoners make it to the guard tower + armoury where they kit themselves out ready to leave this godforsaken place and that is where we left our session.
So much drama and not what I was expecting at all!!
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Post by Sidera on Sept 26, 2016 20:33:44 GMT
Just wanted to update this thread to say we had our third session on friday in which both players and ALL the prisoner NPC's escaped the outpost alive with their armor + weapons/magic items. They didn't however manage to get any food or drink though or even stuff to carry/contain any food and drink they could find in the underdark. This could be their downfall...
I've now got to create an underdark map mixed with random encounters from the campaign guide, and perhaps some homebrew ones to make things a bit more interesting, heading to the kua-toa city which is 8 days travel away at normal pacing (not foraging for food or stealthing or getting lost).
Will be a while (a week or more?) before we get to play again due to me having to plan this and not being too well this past week so I've gotten behind on uni work + I've run a charity coffee and tea afternoon today so there has been baking and planning for that that has taken up my time too. So if anyone has any suggestions for underdark encounters or how to run this kind of situation feel free to chime in, it would definitely be appreciated and may speed up my time being sorted for our next session!
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Post by lasersniper on Sept 26, 2016 21:57:37 GMT
I don't know how much in the way of locations the module gives you. But there was a DMnastics post where we fleshed out some decent locations if you need some. There should be some encounter inspiration in there as well. DM-Nastics #30: Into the Depths |
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Post by Sidera on Oct 9, 2016 23:26:14 GMT
Fourth session and still no TPK, Success! Started this session with them running down a tunnel after escaping the Drow and then getting caught in a rockfall blocking the path behind them. I nerfed the rockfall a bit from the book to give them a chance at surviving and luckily they all did, Shuushar got trapped but was dug out just in time. This was to give them a sense of danger but also put a barrier between them and the Drow so they weren't going to catch up with them immediately. The sound of the rockfall then attracted 2 carrion crawlers but I made a mistake in using these instead of the ones from the book (not knowing they weren't the same) so the group survived with barely a scratch and plenty of food for their journey. I will definitely switch to the monster manual Carrion's when they come up again. They then spent the rest of the day wandering empty tunnels which I had decided would have no fungi to eat due to being harvested for use in the drow outpost so its good they decided to harvest from the carrion crawlers. The Cleric player is having horrifying dreams that cause him to have to make a Con save every morning to stop himself vomiting as he wakes up, he vomited two days in a row but then chose to eat his own vomit rather than starve... brutal.  This caused one of the NPC's, Derendil, to vomit upon seeing him do this, he didn't eat his own vomit. The cleric player also used create water to make sure everyone had something to drink so despite me worrying that people would start to gain exhaustion points fast to critical level not one character has become exhausted! They then went through a tunnel that was filled with horrific sounds which forced them all to role a wisdom save to avoid gaining a madness level. 4 creatures failed their save, 3 NPC's controlled by me and one controlled by a player but that is as far as we managed to get. I'd planned this whole map, and some more from after I took this picture, and they didn't even make it to point 3!!!  I decided to make a map of the pathways so the players had the ability to take note of which ways they went and where they ended up so if they ever need to retrace their steps they could. I rolled the randomised encounters and added them in where I thought they would go best making the map up accordingly. Point 3 is actually a pool of water with Waterorb fungi that was meant to be their saving grace after spending two days without water (and food if they hadn't harvested the carrions) but its just gonna be a boring old pool now haha! It was definitely hard to get into the swing of things after a longer break since the last session so I don't think it was the smoothest or the most immersive game yet but we will also be playing on wednesday as I still have a tonne of material left over so that will be a chance to get back into the swing of things |
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Post by Sidera on Oct 13, 2016 0:05:54 GMT
5th session and still none of the group has died, feel like I might be taking it too easy on them!
They managed to get to the 3rd point on the map and past it to start going down route 5 until they heard some noise back in the cavern behind them which they chose to investigate.
It turned out to be 6 bandits with a bandit captain with two mastiffs (which I chose to severely buff, each had 23 hit points) had entered the cavern and rushed towards the water in the centre of the room with some getting hit by steam vents. The group decided to watch from their tunnel to see what the group of 'humans' did to make sure they weren't working with the drow or planning on following them. They discovered that they were hungry and very thirsty but also rather antagonistic. As the room was full of steam vents so the bandit captain sent a single bandit round the edge of each way to see if they found any exits, one of the bandits then found the tunnel the group were all hiding in. The cleric revealed himself to the bandit and told him to tell his group that this tunnel was dangerous and for them not to come this direction and sent him on his way but he instead went back and told the main group of their whereabouts.
Both groups threw threats across the cavern neither wanting to take the risk of charging across the room filled with steam vents. The bandit captain offered to leave them be if they sent someone over with food and the wizard let slip that they did have a days worth of food along with the fact the other tunnel led to the drow outpost he also started throwing some serious sass and got himself shot and the bandits and so the bandits let the mastiffs free across the cavern to charge at the group. The group managed to slay the two mastiffs who somehow managed to get across the room unscathed from the steam vents and the bandits discussed amongst themselves to let the group go so they could then pass across the cavern, catch up with them and fight on even ground. The wizard used his bat familiar and manged to get him close enough to hear what the group said so we ended up leaving the session in a stalemate.
Any tips on how I could up the difficulty of this encounter for next time??? The NPC's and PC's have mainly escaped unscathed from both encounters so far. If the group had gone down route 4 they would have encountered the bandits in a open tunnel so perhaps this is fine because the terrain has put things in their favour but after throwing those wimpy carrions at them I dunno.
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Post by Lexurium on Oct 13, 2016 10:35:47 GMT
I'd love to help as best I can, but could use some more information, such as, what are the bandits doing in the underdark? What are their reasons for being there and how intelligent is the bandit leader? What do you have planned right now for points 4-7? Is there anything there that could start roaming and force the party to choose between charging the bandits or facing this new threat? Or maybe you want to push the bandits into simply charging, putting something even more dangerous behind them? You've already introduced unstable tectonics to the area, and steamvents are a classic indication of pent up magma, either bring the roof down on spawn a river of lava?
Characters, especially low level, are pretty squishy. The problem is not how to kill them, the problem is making things balanced and if they are using the area they are in tactically I would reward it, as I see you are doing. To be quite honest, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Keep ramping like you do and as long as everyone has fun that's what matters. People will die soon enough anyway, sometimes the dice don't even need help killig PCs.
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Post by Sidera on Oct 13, 2016 12:30:02 GMT
I'd love to help as best I can, but could use some more information, such as, what are the bandits doing in the underdark? What are their reasons for being there and how intelligent is the bandit leader? What do you have planned right now for points 4-7? Is there anything there that could start roaming and force the party to choose between charging the bandits or facing this new threat? Or maybe you want to push the bandits into simply charging, putting something even more dangerous behind them? You've already introduced unstable tectonics to the area, and steamvents are a classic indication of pent up magma, either bring the roof down on spawn a river of lava? Characters, especially low level, are pretty squishy. The problem is not how to kill them, the problem is making things balanced and if they are using the area they are in tactically I would reward it, as I see you are doing. To be quite honest, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Keep ramping like you do and as long as everyone has fun that's what matters. People will die soon enough anyway, sometimes the dice don't even need help killig PCs. The bandit leader has an intelligence of 14 and they are in the underdark because they thought there would be exciting treasure down there but they got lost. 4 is the direction the bandits have come from. It would have been where the group encountered them if they had taken that path. point 5 is mainly empty bar a green smile that will fall on the players. Point 6 is an empty tunnel with the possibility of some food to forage on a high Survival check and point 7 is another empty tunnel that forces them to travel in cramped single file making some NPC's uneasy and causing potential conflict in the group. Yeh I probably should have phrased it better I don't mean to kill them but I do wish for them to feel that there is danger here. Barely anyone has lost even a couple of hit points so there has never been any real threat to them. They have also got round the threats of lack of food and water a lot more easily that I anticipated too. The underdark just isn't seeming a very scary or dangerous place for them as far as I can currently see. The two PC's are both level 3 and they are each controlling a NPC each. One is a level 6 rogue and the other a level 3 ranger (both watered down from the players guide based on the spy and scout stat blocks). The rest of the NPC's are pretty squishy. I feel like the other directions (away from the easiest route which they are currently taking) are a lot better and more interestingly planned as I got better at doing that as I made the map so I suppose I could just let them myself off the hook knowing after this part of the journey I will have some knowledge and experience of how to improve the next. I believe the players are planning to wait in the tunnel and hope the bandits think they have left as they try to cross so they can ambush them. |
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Post by Lexurium on Oct 14, 2016 7:54:00 GMT
The bandit leader has an intelligence of 14 and they are in the underdark because they thought there would be exciting treasure down there but they got lost. 4 is the direction the bandits have come from. *snip* I believe the players are planning to wait in the tunnel and hope the bandits think they have left as they try to cross so they can ambush them. The thing about the underdark is that it will alwas be more treacherous than one might think  Seeing as the bandits have access to the foraging grounds of point 6 and the party doesn't at this point puts the bandits at an advantagee, the question is whether the bandit leader realizes this. Now, a 14 INT is above average, which means you are well within your right to employ some dirty tactics, especially considering the type of mind a man who leads bandits must have. Split the bandits up into subgroups and have the majority of them pull back towards point 4 where the can organize arcs of fire with their bows, splitting the priosners up if they chose to charge. The ones who stay complain about having to "babysit these morons" or something similar. At this point the party will either attack the remaining bandits or move further into the caves towards point 5. If they charge, have the remaining bandits fire their bows and retreat. Fire, run, fire, run untill they draw the party through the passage to point 4. Once there, the trap slams shut and the party will be filled with arrows. Splitting up the bandits will make sure the party can't focus on the bandits as a single group, negating the effectiveness of AoE-spells. The party will probably win, but it will be hard fought, just like a tactician with time to prepair would be difficult to beat. If the party moves towards point 5, the bandits have to make the decision whether the prisoners would be worth the hazzel. If they do, they could atempt to move the point of ambush to point 10 and organize a more by-the-book ambush site (if at all possible). If you rule they wouldn't do that or wouldn't be able to, the bandits would probaly remain in the genreal area where they have access to food and water and attempt to set up a base-camp as they look for a way to escape. This would leave them a threat to be contested with if the party ever returns. If this process takes more than 24 hours, I would have the bandits set up traps, at the very least an early warnings-system. The green slime will most likely cause some harm (barring god-tier rolls), so that path looks fun. If you just want to demonstrate how dangerous it is down here, have one of the squishy NPCs take point and get disintegrated by the slime. Seeing people dissolve before your very eyes is a rather powerful message. I think you will do just fine, however. It seems you have the right instincts Let's hope the next post I see is signed with 6 sessions since last TPK |
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Post by Sidera on Oct 14, 2016 16:02:07 GMT
The bandit leader has an intelligence of 14 and they are in the underdark because they thought there would be exciting treasure down there but they got lost. 4 is the direction the bandits have come from. *snip* I believe the players are planning to wait in the tunnel and hope the bandits think they have left as they try to cross so they can ambush them. The thing about the underdark is that it will alwas be more treacherous than one might think Seeing as the bandits have access to the foraging grounds of point 6 and the party doesn't at this point puts the bandits at an advantagee, the question is whether the bandit leader realizes this. Now, a 14 INT is above average, which means you are well within your right to employ some dirty tactics, especially considering the type of mind a man who leads bandits must have. Split the bandits up into subgroups and have the majority of them pull back towards point 4 where the can organize arcs of fire with their bows, splitting the priosners up if they chose to charge. The ones who stay complain about having to "babysit these morons" or something similar. At this point the party will either attack the remaining bandits or move further into the caves towards point 5. If they charge, have the remaining bandits fire their bows and retreat. Fire, run, fire, run untill they draw the party through the passage to point 4. Once there, the trap slams shut and the party will be filled with arrows. Splitting up the bandits will make sure the party can't focus on the bandits as a single group, negating the effectiveness of AoE-spells. The party will probably win, but it will be hard fought, just like a tactician with time to prepair would be difficult to beat. If the party moves towards point 5, the bandits have to make the decision whether the prisoners would be worth the hazzel. If they do, they could atempt to move the point of ambush to point 10 and organize a more by-the-book ambush site (if at all possible). If you rule they wouldn't do that or wouldn't be able to, the bandits would probaly remain in the genreal area where they have access to food and water and attempt to set up a base-camp as they look for a way to escape. This would leave them a threat to be contested with if the party ever returns. If this process takes more than 24 hours, I would have the bandits set up traps, at the very least an early warnings-system. The green slime will most likely cause some harm (barring god-tier rolls), so that path looks fun. If you just want to demonstrate how dangerous it is down here, have one of the squishy NPCs take point and get disintegrated by the slime. Seeing people dissolve before your very eyes is a rather powerful message. I think you will do just fine, however. It seems you have the right instincts Let's hope the next post I see is signed with 6 sessions since last TPK They already cleared out the room of anything edible and moved on before the bandits arrived, there is water in there now but the players have the create water spell and so don't need any resources in the cavern. So there is no advantage there I'm afraid. The group could leave and there wouldn't be any issue to them. The player group are round the corner of the tunnel so can't be hit by ranged attacks and the players are not planning on going down their route so there would be no reason for the bandits to set up there. They know the players have food and they don't so they are going to want to follow them but charging puts them at a huge disadvantage. They don't have darkvision in the cave and the players can hide round in the tunnel where they can't be seen. If they were to charge they would be running into a slaughter and if they were to set up the players would not come to them. Thus the stalemate. |
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Post by joatmoniac on Oct 18, 2016 1:31:28 GMT
Love this thread! Thank you for taking us with you in your journey through Out of the Abyss! No TPK!
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Post by Sidera on Oct 20, 2016 0:47:30 GMT
Love this thread! Thank you for taking us with you in your journey through Out of the Abyss! No TPK! Thanks for your positive feedback!!! I know this isn't the most amazing piece of literature but it's good to know someone's getting something out of it #teamnotpk |
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Seeing as the bandits have access to the foraging grounds of point 6 and the party doesn't at this point puts the bandits at an advantagee, the question is whether the bandit leader realizes this.
