December 12, 2014 Session Report: That Was a Close One

Over the last two sessions, a gnawing anxiety has been growing in my gut. Am I making it too easy for my players? Is my campaign becoming a cakewalk with no real danger? The evidence is mounting. In our October outing, the PCs cut through 3 hill giants (8 HD monsters!) and 10 ogres like a hot knife through butter. Before that, they vanquished a githyanki anti-paladin and a Type II demon without a scratch. This worries me. Now, it's possible that my players are awesome strategists who work well together and know how to plan their battles. Knowing them as I do, this is a distinct possibility. They are outstanding players.

On the other hand, what if instead I'm turning into that most dreaded of DM archetypes: the munchkin master? Have I become that guy who runs the sort of  "Monty-Haul" campaign that the Great Gygax warned us about in the original AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide--a game where "god-like characters boast and strut about" with magic items "adorning them as if they were Christmas trees decked out with tinsel and ornaments." I sincerely hope not.

Wanting to avoid this terrible fate, I redoubled my efforts to make life a little tougher on the players this time around. Although I didn't set out to kill everyone, I did want to shake things up a little.

The December 12, 2014 session opened with the players interrogating the patrol survivor from the last session. Theodric had cast Charm Person on this guy, and the PCs used that very powerful spell to very good effect. Named William, this gentleman explained that Jacob, a skilled fighter and member of Gawain's original party, had led a small army of humans, hobgoblins and other ruffians into the abandoned city of Neustria well over a year ago. Since then, these unsavory fellows had used teams of enslaved humans, elves and other demi-humans to conduct huge, Indiana Jones-style excavations all over the city. When asked what Jacob was looking for in the ruins, William pleaded ignorance. All he knew was that Jacob hadn't found it. William also gave the players the general layout of Neustria, described the defenses and patrol schedules, and generally provided the players with outstanding intelligence that they couldn't have found anywhere else.

All this information led to a lengthy discussion among the players about how to approach the city, how to get in, what to do when they got there, and so on. Eventually, the four players who were in attendance--we were missing a few regulars that night--decided to walk up to the front gate at around dusk and pretend to be the members of William's lost patrol. William had explained that he knew who the lieutenant on duty was likely to be and that he could probably stall this dude long enough for Theodric to cast Charm Person on him too.  The party could then convince the lieutenant to let them into the city.

That's just what the players did. They approached the city from the south and arrived right at dusk. It was just as William had described it. The city had a huge 100' wall made of black granite that sported 150' towers along its length every 200 yards or so. The city looked out over a vast canyon to the north and the trackless desert to the south.  And again, just as William had said, the lieutenant and his men were guarding the city gate. Theodric cast Charm Person while William talked to them. The lieutenant missed his saving throw and promptly led the PCs into the city, convinced that they were William's patrol.

Inside, the ancient, long-abandoned city was mostly in ruins. The only new structures were the many prison camps recently built by Jacob's men. These housed hundreds of slaves and guards each. Faced with searching an entire city, the PCs decided that the direct approach was the best--i.e., look for Jacob and then either kill him (along with his guards) or interrogate him and then kill him. Since William had said that Jacob's entourage visited the different encampments regularly, the PCs decided to start searching the various camps, using William as a guide. The first couple of encampments turned up nothing but hundreds of slaves and scores of ogre guards.

Things turned really interesting, however, when the PCs blundered into Ludtz, a 15' tall, Fomorian giant, and his buddy Fenris, a massive worg. The primary night guardsman for the city, Ludtz was not so easily gulled as the lieutenant. After a brief, failed attempt at guile, the PCs attacked him. Despite immediately rolling a natural 1 and dropping his flail, Ludtz fought hard. The PCs killed him after a few rounds, but not before he pounded Eirik a couple of times with his fists for 16 hp of damage each. Fenris also got in a few good licks. He grabbed the monk Zhuo Xuan in his jaws early on and didn't let go. Fenris used Zhuo as his personal chew-toy for a couple of rounds until the fighters finally killed the wily old worg. Although Zhuo never lost consciousness, he was reduced to just a couple of hit points. Interestingly, despite all the commotion, no one else in the city ever heard what was going on thanks to Peyton's quick thinking. He had cast Silence 15' Radius in the second round. This fight was easily the toughest the players had had in a couple of sessions. Maybe I wasn't such an easy DM after all! 

Anyway, after the battle, the PCs decided to find a place to rest and recuperate for the night. Looking for Jacob's camp in the dark was a lost cause, and, with the party so beat up, they couldn't have fought Jacob and his guards even if they had managed to find him. After applying multiple healing spells and potions, the PCs went to sleep inside an abandoned building.

The next morning, the city was in an uproar. Ludtz's and Fenris's bodies had been found. The players used the general chaos to quickly search two other encampments in the city. They hit pay dirt with the second. They found a huge, 100'x100' tent in the center of it. William confirmed that this was Jacob's tent. The PCs approached the fighters standing guard outside it. They explained that they had important news for Jacob about potential intruders in the city. The guards ushered them inside.

As the PCs expected, Jacob was there. Reclining on a lavish throne, he was a huge man with black armor and a massive sword. At his immediate right stood a stern-looking fellow with a mace and three black-robed acolytes. This was Robert, a Chaotic Evil cleric and Jacob's spiritual adviser. Four slave girls--including one particularly beautiful blonde--sprawled on velvet cushions in front of the men. Ten other fighters stood guard around the tent's corners.

Jacob started interrogating the PCs the minute they walked in. He was even less impressed with their lies than Ludtz. Jacob quickly suspected that they were not telling him the truth--a suspicion confirmed when Theodric started casting a Fireball. Reacting immediately to this action, Jacob, an 11th level fighter, leaped off his throne and charged Eirik, striking him with his sword. The slave girls panicked--all except for the pretty blonde. She dashed off to the right side of the tent. Robert and his acolytes also moved away in that same general direction. The guards attacked, and a chaotic melee ensued.

The first round see-sawed back-and-forth. Theodric's Fireball never went off. He was struck before he could finish casting it, and the spell was spoiled. On the other hand, the druid, Endenown, cast Summon Insects on Jacob, immobilizing him. An enraged Eirik and Toran used this opportunity to cut Jacob to pieces: he lost nearly 2/3 of his hit points. At the same time, Zhao smartly pulled out his Dust of Disappearance, vanished, and made a beeline for the evil clerics. Peyton engaged a couple of the guards. Except for Theodric's spell, things still looked pretty good.

And then all hell broke loose. The PCs learned that the pretty blonde was not, in fact, a mere bed wench. On the contrary, she was Jacob's wife and closest adviser, a brilliant, 7th-level magic-user named Amelia. (She occasionally dressed as a slave girl both to please Jacob and to fool gullible visitors.)  By the time the PCs had noticed that she was actually casting a spell from her current position, it was too late. She directed a 7d6 Fireball straight into the middle of the party. The result was spectacular. Despite making their saving throws, everyone except for Zhao was in the blast radius and sustained 18 hp of damage each. That was enough to put Theodric in negative-hp territory. He went down. Hard. The explosion also fried William, who was a mere 1st level fighter, and Jacob, who had already sustained serious injuries in his fight with Toran and Eirik. (Based on those injuries, Amelia had figured that Jacob was already dead.) The battle became even more interesting after she fired off another spell, a Web, in the next round and set it on fire. At this point, everyone except Zhao was seriously hurting. He continued to do the Lord's work by keeping Robert busy fighting an invisible foe. The fiery Web inflicted another 6 hp of damage on Theodric. He was now down to -7. Everyone else was still standing, but severely injured. They continued to fight the remaining guards.

Toran and Eirik soon broke through this scrum and engaged Amelia and Robert in hand-to-hand combat. Putting all thoughts of chivalry aside, Toran eventually ran her through, but not before she hit him in the face with several magic missiles. The rest of the party then took about four more rounds to finish off Robert, his acolytes and the remaining guards. Peyton, ever the good cleric, saved Theodric's life by casting Cure Light Wounds on him just before he nearly croaked. Unfortunately for poor Robert, he died without ever casting a single spell.

After the battle ended, the PCs searched the bodies. They found several magic items, but did not have time to inspect them. By then, it was late in the evening for me and the players. We called it a night.

I was satisfied with how this session ended. Though no one died, Theodric came close. Considering how tough their opponents were, the PCs might not have prevailed had they not used the expert teamwork I've come to expect. A few bad dice rolls, and everything could have ended in disaster. In any case, I doubt the players will underestimate their foes in the future the way they did Amelia this time around. They've learned that lesson. In all, I think this session struck the right balance between too easy and too tough.

I hope I can do it again next time.