SESSION FIVE
Previous Article…Campaign Chronicles #7 – Session Three and Four
So, here we are again to tell the events occured in Session Five of these campaign chronicles.
In the previous episode we left our characters close to their goal. Reaching the lighthouse after a small skirmish against a patrol of two pirates.
As I told you, I’m fitting on my campaign a free to download adventure titled Wreck Ashore, an adventure for 1st level characters.
In the original adventure the characters explore a lighthouse. Inside the lighthouse they are supposed to find the bodies of the family who were the actual guardians of the lightouse.
I made some small modifications to the original adventure in order to fit the module into my idea of small campaign. Let’s see them one by one.
The encounter with the ghoul
I added an encounter with a ghoul wondering the whereabouts. I did it for a plausible reason however.
The adventure Wreck Ashore states that a group of pirates slaughtered all the occupants inside the lighthouse in order to seize control of the sea traffic and by means of fake lighthouse located north they provoked some shipwrecks by misleading the crew of the ships.
Now, where there are corpses there are ghouls. This creature works pretty well for my idea of encounter or a potential sidequest.
Imagine all the bodies swallowed by the sea together with the ships. They attract scavengers, and this scavengers are ghouls.
The lighthouse contains four bodies, those of the family that once lived there.
Now we have a possible encounter with a ghoul infesting the lighthouse, and a potential sidequest in a hidden cave carved inside the reef, where other ghouls await the next shipwreck to feed upon the bodies.
The lighthouse is still “working”
In the original adventure the pirates destroyed the lamp of the lighthouse and stolen all the stored oil.
Again, I had to modify this detail.
According to the original adventure, the town of Seawell, was not a prosperous town, it was just a small fishing communities and the lighthouse was nothing more than a feature.
However, in the small setting I created, I wanted the town of Seawell to be an emerging trade node thanks to the lighthouse.
Indeed, the pirates decided that they didn’t need to shipwreck and loot every ship crossing the that sea route, they just needed some specific ship with an interesting cargo.
Let’s say that to his day the pirates haven provoked the shipwreck of two ships only, while they let go intact the mayority of the ships.
This is because they don’t want to raise the alarm in the town of Seawell, something that could easily occur if every ship is sunk and suddenly no one arrive at the docks.
How do the pirates know which ships to sink and which not? That’s another sidequest, we’ll see if the players will decide to investigate this, provided they make the proper deductions.
Long story short, the pirates shut the lighthouse down when they know a juicy cargo is coming, otherwise they turn the lightouse up when the incoming ship is worthless to them.
Other changes?
Yes, I have something in mind, but I’m still working on it, and I want to see what the players do in the next sessions.
What happened in session five?
The characters decide it’s time to explore the lighthouse, so they reach the top of the cliff where the lighthouse is located.
The ghoul is lurking nearby, well hidden and watchful for the characters to enter the lighthouse, waiting for an opportunity to outwit the intruders.
The characters access the lighthouse in area 13. Consider that this is the first “dungeon” my players explore ever, being both newbies.
So, after a brief description of area 13 they have to make a decision on how to proceed with the exploration.
Well, they decide to split.
Reminder: There two PCs, a drow called Maeve, a tiefling called Alegra and an orc npc.
The Drow declare she wants to open the central door, assuming that beyond that door there must be the stair that lead to the levels above.
Her deduction is obviously correct and she proceed to climb the stair until she reaches the last level of the lighthouse, where the lamp is located (area 1).
She declares she wants to light the the lamp of the lighthouse up. I just take not of this.
In the meanwhile the Tiefling and the Orc are waiting at the ground floor and are not taking any action.
The ghoul lurking outside is now approaching the lighthouse and is observing what is going on before taking any action. He understands that the group is splitting.
Now it’s time for the Tiefling and the Orc to act.
They first explore area 12, which is the latrine. A stinky and dirty place. Needless to say the players declares that she closes the door almost immediately. The next action the tiefling takes is to explore area 14, which was once the food storage, now empty. The Orc follows her.
The ghoul lurking outside now become more bold. She enters the lighthouse but remains unspotted. He possesses the keys of the lighthouse and plans to close the door leading to the food storage (area 14) behind the characters and then close the door of the latrines (area 12). In this way both the tiefling and the orc will reamin isolated from the Drow.
I allow the Tiefling to roll two perception checks to hear the ghoul coming, but both checks fail. Unlucky rolls indeed!
Being everything apparently safe, the Drow and the Orc proceed to explore the next room, area 15. There they easily spot the corpse of a woman, dead many days ago.
In that moment they hear the door of the storage area closing, and someone locking the it with a key.
The trap of the ghoul worked, and the undead now climb the stair until he reaches area 1, where the lamp is located…and the lone Drow!
Again, I ask the Maeve the drow to roll a perception check. She rolls 1! This is a very unlucky roll.
“You feel the presence of someone behind, followed by a terrible stench of dead. You don’t have the time to scream, but fear overcome you when you feel the chill touch of a hand grasping your neck and lifting you from the ground as if you were a small child. A slimy tongue wrap around you face while the bony and cold hand is slowing choking you”
The players is quite surprised and doesn’t know what to do. So I ask her to think carefully about her move. The ghoul touch has no effect on elves, so the drow is unaffected.
The player declares she wants to stab the arm of the ghoul, hoping he may releases the grip around her neck.
I know it’s a desperate action, but I want to give her a chance.
If the character wins the initiative and hit the ghoul, I’m planning to give her a chance to get free of the grasp. It’s not an easy task however.
Sadly, the ghoul is faster than the character, and the very moment the drow attempts to draw the weapon i have the ghoul hit automatically causing enough damage to incapacitate the drow.
The ghoul hang the drow to the balconade of area 1, by the feet. The plan is to leave the elf dying and rotting there until she will turn into a tasty and putrid meal.
Let’s go downstairs, where the Tiefling and Orc are trying to reach the entrance after having been enclosed.
The doors of the lighthouse are robusts.
It takes a while for the Orc to force it, four attempts for the sake of precision.
Once the door is forced the Tiefling and the Orc climb the stairs, assuming that someone is inside the lighthouse and that the Drow’s life is potentially at risk -again the deduction is correct!
Long story short, the Tiefling and the Orc climb the stairs to reach area 1. As soon as the Tiefling make a step inside area 1, I have her roll a perception check…she fails.
The ghoul was ready to ambush whoever was about to cross the jamb of the door. He used the inconscious body of the Drow, as a distraction to have the trespasser watching to her right, while waiting to the left of the door.
“You see something that freeze your blood. The Drow is hanging from the balconade like a piece of meat, her feet entangled with a rope. You don’t have the time to realize what is going on, because a hand grasps your face and violently drags you from the door. You can’t even see what is attacking you, because your muscles can’t move and cold is invading your blood. You only feel terror and a terrible stench of rotting flesh”
Ok, now the Tiefling is within the grasp of the ghoul and the Orc – who is a NPC – has to make a decision. That means the Game Master should take action, but I have a different resolution in mind.
I ask the players what the orc should do in such a situation, and I state that the one who rolls higher on a D20 will have the orc act accordingly.
Tiefling: the orc moves close to the ghoul and prepare for an attack.
Drow: the orc draws his weapon and strike the ghoul, not matter the consequences.
Both players roll, the Drow wins, so the orc will draw the weapon and only god knows what is going to happen!
Honestly I’m intrigued by the possible outcomes.
Once again, it’s a matter of initiative.
Who will win between the ghoul and the orc?
Well, the orc is slower, and the ghoul gets the chance to choke the Tiefling until she passes out.
However, the unconscious body of the Tiefling becomes a burden for the ghoul, so I decide to grants the orc an attack with advantage.
The oucomes is lucky and interesting at the same time, because the orc manages to roll a 20. Critical hit!
The orc rolls 2d12+3, inflicting 20 damage to the ghoul. It’s not enough to kill a standard ghoul, who has 22 hit points.
However I want the combat to end and I enhance the critical hit. The blow is so poweful and violent that the ghoul is literally throwed out of the balcony, where he falls for 15 meters.
This fight is over.
The pirates are coming!
Now, if you remember, the lamp of the lighthouse is burning. The Drow light it up during the day and never lighted it off. It was daytime, just before mid-day.
The party decides it’s time to rest and recover. So they rest a total of 16 hourse to fully recover from the fight.
As you can guess a the pirates spot the lighthouse and wonder who the hell light it up!
They are coming, four of them!
The Drow luckily spot them while approaching, but they are still far, so I give the players a chance to prepare some defenses.
They just wait for the pirates to arrive close to the entrance and then they decide to employ the oil stored inside the lighthouse to shower the pirates and then torch them.
The plan works pretty well. They manage to torch three pirates, while a fourth is just lightly wounded and run away to the pirate’s campment…or at least he tries.
I remind the drow the she decided to level up as a ranger instead of levelling up as a witch. I didn’t agree at that time, but in such a situation her level as ranger proves to be very useful.
For the drow is very easy to chase the running pirates during the night. She reaches the pirate, she scares him a bit and then she attack with a light crossbow, with advantage.
Imagine the poor wounder pirates what chance had against a drow in night-time. No way…
The pirate is not wounded to dead, so the drow decides to spare his life to take him as a prisoner.
It seems the players want to ask some question before.
And here this game session is over, we’ll see soon for the next!