Journal ROH: Escape from the Ambush that they set

The kids are really starting to to think outside of the box.  Confronted with a broken down wagon full of arms and treasure, they spilt up.  Two to fix the wagon while two go on to the next town, Darden, to see if they can secure a horse and wagon or at least a horse... The race is on against the rider who escaped and the reinforcements he will bring.  


So Quazzy and Mari go into town and manage to talk their way past the guards.  They head straight to the livery where Qazzy announce their intentions to overthrow the Iron Circle, and hey we're here to help you so help us out.  (very indicative of how trusting my children are...)


Unfortunately, the DM rolls IC sympathizers, and they have to mosey along quickly.  They are taken aside and introduced to the mayor, Madira, who wants them out of town, so the IC do not burn her town like they did Marl.  Her assistant is a little more helpful and suggest they steal a horse as he guides them out of town.


Qazzy steals the horse, he and Mari ride out of town.  In the mean time Vash and John have fixed the wheel, and do not shoot them as they approach.  They roll up on a farm and seek shelter only to be surrounded by the McClaren clan, who are no fans of the IC, and what are these four lads doing with the tax collectors wagon?  The MacClarens (whom they have never met) convince the party to hide the treasure on there farm, and send someone back from the rebellion, to retrieve the arms.  They don the IC uniforms and continue on without the treasure.


They come around the bend and find a column of 15-20 Iron Circle troops marching towards them.  At dusk, the IC see a guarded wagon, mis-identify the players as IC.  The players BS their way through this and the IC are happy to see the party with the Salary wagon.  


They converge on the wagon.  The commander orders them to step aside and from up a guard around the wagon.  The DM moves the IC figures aside and realizes what a huge tactical blunder he has just made.  The characters try to bolt through the thinning ranks in front of them, but fail.  Confusion ensues.  Vash grabs the reigns from John, Mari and Qazzy mount up, and Qazzy calls for the cougar to give the horse incentive to run.


The runs right off the the road and Vash manages to roll the wagon on its side.  The mob of unpaid IC are descending upon the wagon and John manages to throw out some fire (literally) in front of them.  It slows them down while the party makes a run for it.  Mari wants to set the wagon afire, and the DM asks will he be using the flint and straw or rubbing two sticks together.  They run, and John casts flame seed, setting the wagon afire.  The characters make their escape as the IC attempts to extinguish the wagon and rescue their gold.

Journal ROH: Tavern Brawl & Ambushing the Supply Wagon

The bad guys get a series of horrendous rolls which set up a strange tactical situation, unenvisioned by the DM.  they walk into a bar full of Iron Circle, one at a time, walk past the bad guys to the bar, and order drinks.  The Iron Circle are completely pre-occupied and and don't notice an armed group of strangers walking in until... 

The last one, wearing his hood comes in.  Then suddenly they break from an engrossing conversation? sober up? and all turn to look at Qazzy standing in the door.  Instead of using the element of surprise, the rest of the characters bring themselves to the attention of the bad guys:  

Hey, wanna pick a fight with him, you have to fight us too!    

Really?  yep, really.

A couple of the bad guys go after Qazzy, who retreats, out the door, while the rest of them confront the party that moments ago, was behind them and had surprise on their side.  Chop, slash, hack. Crossbow shooting in the window, duck, cover.  Qazzy is surrounded outside, but holds his own until his cougar, who was off doing cougar business, shows up, and the rest of the party fights their way outside to help finish the bad guys off.

They meet Dar, the rebel leader, who explains the situation, and that they desperately need weapons if they have any chance of beating the Iron circle.  Spy's say there's a wagon full of goods headed out, his scout will guide them to an ambush point...

Harno, a veteran Dwarven saergent from Hammerfall, who speaks with a Kaliphornia accent, counsels the Qazzy and John on how to set up an ambush, and what a kill zone is...  Perhaps it would have been better to explain this to fighters, but they are teenagers and are sleeping late.  We have a short window to play today.  The set up is OK, but not enough communication happens.  So things go immediately awry.

John succeeds in pulling the driver off the cart with his Thorn Whip, which stops the cart.  The Spellcaster starts laying down fire on John and sends his faithful companion to root john out of the bushes.  The fighters charge in and start whacking the guards, while the spellcaster continues to target John.  Quazzy sends his cougar to charge the spellcaster, on the wagon, which... spooks the horse.  The horse going away from the cougar goes off road, breaks a wheel on the wagon, which comes to a stop.  The cougar and the faithful companion are battling it out, while the driver comes up and releases the horse. 

The boys start arguing about who is going to get to keep the faithful companion, once they kill the spellcaster who is still reigning down fire and destruction on the party.  

Qazzy, John, Vash and the cougar are bleeding out (below zero HP - dying), while all the guards lay dead and finally Mari kills off the Companion and the spellcaster.  John never did get to heal anyone, as he was the first to go down.  Mari saves the day, and Vash sees the driver riding off into the distance on the horse.

Mari helps everyone heal up, and the boys loot the bodies and find the keys, so they don't have to hack open the wagon.  Inside is more treasure than described, a few suits of armor, weapons and gold.  

Unfortunately, it's in a wagon with a broken wheel and no horse.  They are conveniently closer to the next town, than the town in the direction that the horseman rode off.

Can they fix the wagon wheel?  Can they sneak into town to steal or buy a horse, and get back before reinforcements arrive?

I keep saying if you take out the leader, some of the other bad guys may flee or surrender.  But no one listens to me.

Journal: RoH The Toadwallow Caverns

Nothing will go right in this scenario for the DM or the players.  We have guests.  Can we fit our friends into the scenario the boys plead.  The DM is left appeasing the kids and parents.  Because well, when there is a plot turn, we accept and move on.


In retrospect the party was too strong, and the DM failed to up the ante, and increase the dwellers strength.  The party added a wizard and two fighters.  But they were still young and inexperienced.  


Before we ever got to the Toadwallow caverns, the party met Bran Torson, Head of Tor's Hold.  And he was "DAMN GLAD TO MEET YOU.  WELCOME TO TOR'S HOLD.  DON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER.  I HATE BULLYWOGS AND I LOVE FROGS LEGS.  KNOW WHAT I MEAN?"  "WELCOME ABOARD! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?  WHAT DO YOU DO? OUTSTANDING!!!  CAN YOU KILL BULLYWOGS?  OUTSTANDING..."   All around.  And that's how we brought three more players into the mix.  They conveniently showed up at the right time to help the town defeat the monsters.


Wizards should stay behind fighters at all times.  They are not scouts.  Unless they are red shirts to show how the monster works. PC's should know better, unless they are red shirts sent into the fray so mommies can drink fermented grape beverages and the DM is under spell of said succubi...


The best line of the day came from our neighbor two doors down, an 8 year old newbie "Mr. Torson, would some of your men like to join us, even though they are probably going to die?"  Benach said this with a straight face. The DM howled with laughter, and the other players laughed too.  The truth is funny. But Benach started to cry.  OMG, this was one of the WORST DM moments.  No, Ben that was hilarious! don't cry we are laughing because that was smart funny not dumb funny.... 


We moved on.


The DM's insanity has continued.  There is a map of a cave.  It can be made 3D.  What do I need.  Bullywogs for starters.  E-bay has b-wogs.  How to make a cave? A lot of searching on diorama building sites and the DM discovers:  CelluClay.  Just add water for a sculptable paper mache' substitute.   Walls are cut from cardboard, CelluClay is mixed and applied, figures are ordered on e-bay.  


*[Spoiler Alert - The section below contains some descriptions of combat scenarios contained within the adventure, and my provide players with a tactical advantage]*


The pièce de résistance  is a dragon's head, crafted from an empty packet of cigarettes, and painted with poster paint.  Not quite to scale, but in form to hide one figure. Heh!


They party, with a few good rolls clears the entry cave.  And then they learn another lesson in what not to do.  #4 Never charge into a dark cave... 


(#1 Never open EVERY door, just because you can't figure out who is the leader, and you all want to open a door.  #2 Never run in front of archers or spellcasters, in your own party,who are prone to fumble. #3 Never cast a spell on someone, without consulting them first, or at least explaining that you are trying to heal or help them.) 


The Toad Chief is laying down fire on one side of the cave, so Vash the stampede decides to flank his position, by running into the dark cave on the left side.  He directs John the Druid to run to further to the left into the other cave entrance...  dum dum dum....
    
Basically Vash runs past a 2 b-wogs with clubs, hidden in a crevice, who proceed to smack the crap out of him, as he blindly runs past.  



Vash, in a fit of anger uses his daily power to vanquish his attacker and learns rule #5:  Save your daily power until you need it.  Inflicting less than 10 points of damage, he mightily kills the 1 HP minion.


John is not so lucky, as he runs right into the Gray Ooze, but sidesteps the pit they are.. well oozing out from.    See rule number 4 above, we are learning this as we go along.  


It should be noted that the finely crafted paper mache grey oozes are strewn on the cavern floor, just like the rocks, that serve as difficult terrain.  If you look carefully at the terrain, there may be clues. Or not, maybe the DM is just keeping you on your toes..  


When the DM rolled the attack and whacked John, his reaction was "WHAT THE HECK?"  Exactly the reaction one should have when one runs blindly into a dark cave and steps in mass of dissolving ooze.   


His second reaction was: Vash told me to run in here!  Couple of points here.  1) Vash is a fighter, you are a Druid.  Now act like a Druid.  2) Just because he is your older step brother, does not mean you have to listen to him, especially in the game.  3)  Leadership development is a difficult process.     


Mari, that's Maree to you, fool, is using the game mechanic to his advantage, charges the skull and ends the b-wog chiefs reign of terror. The rest of the party hunts down the oozes and minions, with the loss of one PC: Athenis the newly added mage.  She and the additional fighters are called home for the night.  The fighter and cleric are sent on a side quest, that they might join us again.  


The party gruesomely collects the b-og legs, but leaves Athenis body behind. 

Journal: Reavers of Harken (RoH) Ilyana's Plight

The boys come upon Ilyana's farm being attacked by the Iron Circle.  They attack haphazardly and with out a plan, or coordinated efforts.  They die.  The boys are 15,14,12 and 9.  This is no way to get them interested in gaming.

They wake up from their dream, and find themselves in the same place again.  Deja Vu.  Except the DM has lost his mind in the passing time.  He thinks that part of the problem is that they can't visualize the tactical situation.  So he builds the entire scenario out of cardboard bits and pieces.  The house, the walls,  the wagon, the out buildings.  The DM has realized that he does not have enough Iron Circle bandits. There will be perhaps dozens in later scenarios.

So he spends a lot of time looking online for cheap figs, and settles on The Wargamesfactory Saxon-Thegns, are the best bet at 32 figs for $20 USD.  And the DM goes modeling crazy.  These are great figs, but they are parts that need to be glued together and armed and painted.  But they are awesome!

The boys, are now facing the real enemy, humans, not Orcs standing in for the Iron Circle.  They even have black circles painted on their shields.  Granted, the wolves are still played by spectral panthers b/c they were cheap.  But casting and set building has improved. Voice acting is still a bit week.  All of the Iron Circle have Cockney accents.

The DM's wife is amused, and encouraging.

They improve their tactics and get some better rolls and are able to overcome the Iron Circle.  Ilyana sends them to to see the Druid.  John is a druid.  This is a good opportunity to council him.

The boys get the story, this valley of Harkenwold has been overrun by the Iron Circle and they can help save it.  And the Druid sends them off to help Bran Torson and his clan who are being overrun by Bullywogs.  Evil unnatural frog critters....