SESSION THREE AND FOUR
Previous Article…Campaign Chronicles #6 – Session Two
In this article we resume the events occured in session three and session four.
SESSION FOUR
This session marks for the character the arrival at the town of Seawell, after a week long journey and a couple of encounter with gnolls.
The PCs now need 50xp only to advance to level two, however during this session nothing special occurs, at least nothing that is worth to award some experience points.
Keep in mind that in D&D 5ed 300xp are required to advance to level 2…we are close.
If you remember, in previous articles, I already presented the rudimental map of the town of Seawell.
For the sake of convenience I’ll show the map again so that you can see what the players saw.
As we said, this session was more about exploring the town and organizing the trip to the Lighthouse.
More important of all, this is the first session where the players are roleplaying in urban environment.
Their goal is to reach the Lighthouse.
How they are going to accomplish this task it’s up to them.
So, let’s see what they did to complete the task.
I give the players a brief description of what they see from the low hills that surround the town.
I describe the farms surrounding the town and the path leading to the docks.
I tell the players that they can clearly spot many sails anchored in high sea and others docked.
Then they spot the portions of a wall still under construction and what looks like a large campment.
That’s all, if they need more descriptions, they will be given later while they explore the town.
It’s time for the players to declare their actions.
The first matter they want to solve is how and where to attend their wounds and where they can sleep.
Now, if you observe the map of the town you’ll notice that I haven’t placed a healer, but I have placed a Inn.
The PCs decide to ask for a healer first, so I place the healer close to the docks, a proper place where a healer can attend sailors coming from long and dangerous journeys.
I describe the healer and his shop as a busy place, with many people going and coming.
Many of them are wounded workers working at the wall.
The one who needs more cares is the orc, Kirk the Orc, He actually suffered 5 hit points, which is quite high for a first level NPC.
The decision is made, the orc is going to stay at the healer’s shop, while the PCs will be looking for the better way to reach the Lighthouse.
It will take two days for the orc to heal his wounds and the PCs agree with the healer a price of 5sp per day.
They PCs quickly discover two possible ways to reach the Lighthouse.
And here starts the adventure “Wreck Ashore”, so we’ll see how to fit such adventure into this ongoing short campaign.
In the adventure “Wreck Ashore” there are two possible ways to reach the Lighthouse.
By land, crossing the swamp. This option requires three days.
By sea, coasting the eastern seacliff and then rounding the promontory where the Lighthouse is located.
The PCs aknowledge that crossing the swamps has some unconfortable implications and they exlude in advance this option.
They don’t even ask information about the swamp and they decide straightforward to make the journey by sea.
I ask them why they exclude the swamps without even considering this option.
The answer is a funny one, because they say they don’t want to deal with insects, mud and other dirty things that usually lurk in a swamp.
I agree with them…what else could I do 🙂 ?
They start looking for someone who can carry them by sea, and they go to the docks to look for a small fishing boat willing to do the job for a reasonable price.
They of course find a fisherman and a boat, and I have them negotiate the price.
This is actually their first negotiation, and all prices are expressed in silver pieces more than gold pieces.
The fisherman wants 10sp for passenger to reach the destination, and other 10sp for passenger to come back
Honestly, I didn’t think that the PCs were planning to come back by sea.
The negotiation is closed when the PCs agree to pay 50sp to the fisherman to wait for them one week in high sea before coming back without them.
The journey does not include the donkeys and the wheeled chart.
And here come the solution, directly proposed by the players.
They want to leave the donkeys and the wheeled chart under the cares of the healer, so that he can employ the chart to move the wounded, especially those who can’t walk on their own.
It’s not over of course, they want to sign a written agreement with the healer and they ask me where they can find a notary to authenticate the agreement.
Pretty fun uh? I love the proposal and I make it happen.
The healer love the proposal also and accept to take care of the donkeys and the chart during a period of 25 days for the modest price of 25sp.
It’s quite interesting how things are evolving, especially for players who are facing their first D&D sessions.
They have clear they want to reach the Lighthouse as soon as possible and by taking the safest and fastest way.
They are even planning, after completing the investigation at the Lighthouse, to come back to the town of Seawell.
I know that it could sound something obvious to you, but in my mind and experience it’s not. Many times the players starts to create their own path, which most of the time results in a quite messy serie of journeys without any specific goal to pursue.
I conclude that, beside the lack of knowledge about rules and experience as rpg players, the will to plan and develop the story is present.
So, this is the resume of the events occured during session three. It was all about establishing contact with locals NPCs – the healer and the fisherman – and preparing the details for a two days journey.
The players don’t know what is about to come, but they expect to find out what happened at the lighthouse within one week from their landing to the beach – indeed the asked the fisherman to wait one week.
Now, as I told you previously, the PCs have accumulated 250XPs, so 50XPs are required to advance to 2nd level.
I decide to award them 50XP so that, for the next session, they will be able to complete the advancement, under my supervision of course.
SESSION FOUR
The plans for session four were the following:
- Assist the players to advance the characters to level 2
- Have the PCs embark and reach safely the beach located close to the Lighthouse.
- Get close to the Lighthouse and face at least one encounter between the two described in the adventure Wreck Ashore.
The adventure Wreck Ashore states and suggest that once the the PCs have landed they are supposed to meet a patrol of pirates and at least one lizard-man BEFORE reaching the Lighthouse.
Level advancement
Now, as I told in previous articles the players were planning to advance as fighters or at least into a class that allows to engage enemies in meele.
The given explanation was that hand-to-hand combat sounded more “satisfying” than killing enemies by spells.
I’m not saying that I tried to change their mind, but I explain both that some unlucky rolls do not determine the strenght of a class. Thay have had too few encounters to dispatch the Witch class so quickly.
I successfully convince the player playing the tiefling to give the witch class a chance.
However I don’t let her pick the spells and the Eldritch Invocations, especially the last ones.
I open the player’s handbook and I read her all the Invocations for which her character has the prerequisites, providing a “colored” description of what each invocation do.
When you deal with new players it’s better avoiding having them pick new powers on their own when they advance to a new level, they usually “get lost in translation”, they waste a lot of time and they end up without any good decision.
If possible, compare the new powers with something that they have seen on Tv or at the cinema.
For example, when explaining the eldritch invocations known as Mask of Many Faces, I compared this power to the skill employed by Arya Stark in Game of Thrones.
The Drow, a first level Witch like the tiefling, wanted to advance as a fighter. However multiclassing in D&D 5ed is not easy as in 3.5 and Pathfinder. The rules requires to match some prerequisites.
In such a case the rules requires the character to have a score of Strenght or Dexterity 13 at least.
I don’t know yet if I made a mistake, but I said the player No, she can’t advance as a fighter.
She opted for the ranger, instead of the fighter, and doesn’t seem to be interested in advancing as a Witch.
The game session
I must say that everything went as planned and the session was a satisfying one.
However I had to fix some holes present in the adventure.
I don’t know if you ever read or played Wreck Ashore, however some details are contradictories and need a bit of fixing.
For example, the author states that the fake lighthouse built by the pirates is located just in proximity of the beach, but when the PCs reach the coast they don’t have a chance to spot it.
So, I proceed to fix this detail by placing the fake Lighthouse behind the beach, just beyond the point where the tide usually reach it’s limit.
At this position the beaches usually ends with small dunes and beyond those dunes you usually find plants and trees in abundance.
That will be the perfect place where the fake lighthouse will be located and camouflaged. Invisible by day, but visible by night when the light is on.
In Wreck Ashore adventure, a group of pirates seize the Lighthouse ans slay the occupants. Then they build a fake lighthouse that they employ to reroute the ships against the seacliff and the rocks. Once the ship sinks, they can comfortably take care of the shipment. An original way to be a pirate, but an efficient one.
Let’s come back to our chronicle.
The Journey by sea
The journey by sea proceed without problems, except for a light seasickness. It’s important to let the players know that their characters are heroes at best, and not superheroes.
After two days of quiet navigation, they round the promontory that host, at its top, the renowned Lighthouse.
I give the players a clear description of the landscape and the Lighthouse position.
The Lighthouse is placed on the top of the seacliff and remains visible all the time except when they reach the point where the boat sets the anchor.
Indeed, from that position, the seacliff is to steep and they are too close to spot the Lighthouse.
However that is the closest sandy beach where they can land by means of a boat. I care to describe the seacliff as a colossal natural monument, something that make you feel dizzed for its altitude and splendour.
I care to describe how deep the beach is(600/700 feet deep), and that where the beach ends, they see a small dune (10/30 feet high) that mark the “end” of the beach and the “beginning” of the inner environment.
I clearly tell the players that beyond the dune they spot trees and bushes, a clear example of thick sub-tropical wood.
It’s quite important to describe this portion of the environment, so that the players can have a clear idea of the distances and the kind of terrain they are going step on.
The players declare they want to head south and reach the Lighthouse as soon as possible.
So, another clear description is required, and this one must be even more clear than the previous one, because that is where I’m planning the encounter with the pirate patrol.
I describe they see a portion of beach that leads to the rocky grounds that precede the seacliff. The rocky grounds are steep, around 40/45 degree of inclination, enough to make the climbing a hard one, but not too much to employ their hands.
I explain that all the environment is filled with bushes and small tree, from 2 to 5 feet high. Upthere the vegetation is quite different from the plants thet saw beyond the dune, being the terrain more rocky and dry.
I eventually state that the sun beat the surface and that it will be a bath of sweat and that the Drow is going to suffer a bit due to direct exposition to sunlight.
Having planned an encounter with a patrol of two pirates, I want to be sure that the players understand that their sight will be limited and the climbing not an easy task.
I place the encounter at halfway, after 1 hour and a half, at this point the Lighthouse is not visibile yet because the ground is too steep to have a straight view on the building.
The pirate patrol had already spotted the characters boat when it arrived and they saw them landing on the beach. So they are prepared and aware of the PCs.
Just before the encounter triggers, I give the characters the chance to spot their stalkers.
I first roll a stealth check for the pirates, and that will be the DC for the perception roll of the PCs.
Against any odd, it’s the Drow – the drows have disadvantage on perception roll when in sunlight – the one who spot the pirates chasing them, she rolls a 15 and a 17, before adding the +5 bonus. Enough!
So, no round of surprise and no advantage rolls for the pirates.
We roll for initiative and I assign disadvantage to the pirates because they have been discovered but they are not aware they have been spotted.
The PCs act first and they all declare they want to find a hiding in order to stay out of sight.
It’s time to employ the battlemap.
They all roll a stealth check and everyone manage to find a proper hiding – behind rocks or bushes – except the orc who rolls a natural 1.
Again, I know that in 5ed skill check no fumble is allowed, but I don’t care. A natural 1 has consequences.
Both pirates spot the orc, and only him, so they shoot two bolt from their crossbows. One of them hits!
Now, this encounter is very short and lethal for both the pirates, because it lasts only three rounds. No survivors, no prisoners.
The distance between the pirates and the characters is around 40 feet.
Keep in mind that the players have had a couple of encounters already, so they have learnt something about movement and combat. There are details that are not very clear yet to them, like move action and attack action, but they are starting to understand the action economy of the game.
Let’s go on with the encounter.
The Drow takes a move action to get closer to one pirate and throw her spear.
Swift and lethal. the roll is a hit and inflicts 5 hit points to the pirate, enough to stick him to the ground
The Orc employs his action to move two time and get closer to the last surviving pirate.
The Tiefling casts Hex to make the pirate vulnerable.
The following round is the last one for the pirate, the tiefling quickly dispatch him with Witch Bolt. That is 1d12 (witch bolt) + 1d6 (hex) damage.
And here the session is over. We’ll see for the next episode of the chronicles!