Game Night: The Vineyards

So, it was a game night today.  Originally, I planned to have my players accompanied by FIVE companion characters, and have the group fight a bunch of giants.  After some consideration, I realized this was a bad idea, and quickly threw together a series of encounters to advance the plot of my campaign instead.  I used a Dungeon Delve adventure, but completely reworked much of the presentation.

Since I haven't posted about my game on this blog yet, I'll post the characters:

• Shedin.  Dragonborn Paladin (8).  A good, honest soldier who served the dragonborn noble Vannon before deciding to follow the "blinkstone companions" on their trek into the Feywild. 
• Zahar.  Shadar-Kai Bard (8).  Formerly an Eladrin, Zahar has slowly been turning into a drow, and is in the transition phase (Shadar Kai are half-drow, half-eladrin, since those races are two sides of the same coin).  Zahar is a natural leader, but he's also selfish and has a dark outlook.  And a big sword.
• Hammer.  Minotaur Fighter (8).  A large minotaur that wields a large, well, hammer.  He is loyal to his companions and more than willing to stand at the front, leading the attack.
• Kirra.  Drow Rogue (8).  A stealthy, quiet huntress, Kirra is quite able to find her way into the most advantageous position... and her enemies would do well to make sure that never happens.
• Seahorse.  Halfling Rogue (8).  Seahorse is a sailing halfling who looks more like a boy than a woman.  Very ugly, she has little faith in the world around her. 

Without going into too much detail, the PCs have made their way into the Feywild, rescued Guineadh (Drow Princess), and are making their way to the Eladrin capital.  They want to figure out who's been poisoning the drow outposts, causing the darkness that drow huntresses keep at bay to slowly creep closer to the Twilight City of Mithrendain.

***

The Party makes their way towards the Eladrin city of Mithrendain, soon learning that Guineadh is far from the kindest leader towards non-drow.  After only a few hours of her biting  tongue, Shedin wonders aloud "how many drow I have to save before I earn their respect".  Which earns a glare from the princess... her natural face, it seems. 

In the darkness of the lightless Feywild, the land slowly begins to brighten as they reach the central city of light.  But it is still abysmally dark, and the group nearly walks over the body of a fallen Eladrin soldier.  A quick assessment reveals he's wearing the colours of the Eladrin Tasoria Noble Family, that he's been dead for only a few hours, and that he shouldn't be here.  And that he'd been run through with a lance, from behind.

The group decides to follow the trail, at the request of Guineadh (who "will never run from some worthless Eladrin").  They stumble across several more bodies, all killed from behind.  Following the trail, they eventually come to a small Eladrin village, abandoned when the darkness descended a month or so ago, and a moment's thought reminds Kirra that this village (Illedar, or Yledar) was once well known for its wine.  In the town square, Galen (a drow wizard, and Guineadh's advisor of sorts) finds several more bodies dumped into the town well.

The group follows the trail some more, towards some caves that are used to store casks of wine.  As they make their way through the Vineyards (which are now filled with rotting grapes, as the land has been bereft of any sunlight for more than a month), they see a light up ahead, and witness a large party of Eladrin.  Guineadh, Kirra, and Cinei (a drow scout) creep towards the light, and recognize Luscan, an Eladrin Nobleman known to be a mercenary, unloading crates, along with over a dozen Eladrin soldiers.  There are three pegasi nearby as well, not to mention two mounted griffons.  Some half-breed drow/eladrin watch from the cave mouth, their armour glinting in the eladrin lightstones' glow.

When the Eladrin party departs, the rogues creep back and hide their companions, with Guineadh explaining that Luscan is not a member of Tasoria family, but is instead a minor nobleman with delusions of grandeur.  She believes the uniform of Tasoria is a ruse, and gets her drow (along with Tongs, the Eladrin Warlord that was formerly a PC) to follow in pursuit.  She tells the PCs she will meet them in Mithrendain, and charges them with finding out what is in those crates.

"If they get in the way and you have to kill them... or you'd just rather kill them for pleasure... you have my blessing.  They're just half-breeds, after all."

The group makes a circle, with the rogues sneaking in to take cover behind a wagon.  They count six half-breeds carrying the crates back into the cave mouth, watched over by a half-breed woman that is obviously a witch or wizard of some sort.

The group attacks and gains surprise, dealing some fast damage.  Half the men run into the cave mouth, while the other half are caught in an engagment with the PCs while the wizardess fires at nearby  targets with a black ray.  The PCs quickly attack, with Seahorse blinding one with some thrown sand and Zahar using his fey step to get behind the half-breeds and then a magical shout to push them towards the charging Shedin and Hammer.

The combined force of the group quickly woudns the soldiers, which allows Kirra (assisted by Seahorse and Shedin) to intimidate them into surrendering.  Meanwhile, Hammer and Shedin rush the wizard women, and are engaged in a tight barrel room by the wizard and the three remaining half-breeds, who are able to teleport behind Hammer and land strikes.  Further, the woman releases a cloud of shadows that burns at the skin of any who are near.

Eventually, the fight is overcome with little trouble, mostly due to amazing skill by the group and the use of Zahar's bolstering cries. 

The PCs rolled well, and whenever someone bloodied or killed an enemy, Zahar would grant them 5 temporary hit points and a damage bonus on their next attack.

The group roots through the chest in the room, and uncovers some black vials, as well as a lot of coins and some interesting items of value.  They interrogate the half-breeds, mostly by using a "good dragonborn/bad drow" technique that works wonders... especially when Zahar begins to heat his sword up in a torch's heat and threaten to start burning people.  The group learns that the Half-Breeds are involved in poisoning water that is given to the drow, and that they've been receiving the poison from Tasoria Eladrin.  They don't know why they're doing this, but they know the pay is well, and that their ultimate leader (a "creature" that lives in the depths of the cave) has a hatred for both the drow and eladrin.  Seahorse finds one of the half-breeds is wearing magical drow boots, and steals them for herself.. .even though they're a loose fit. 

The session ended there.  It was a short game, with two skill challenges (I use the obsidian skill challenge system) and one long encounter that was basically two encounters.  The PCs wanted to try out using Intimidate on bloodied allies, and planned it all out while I was using the washroom.  When I came back, I knew they had something planned, but they wouldn't tell me what.  Which I'm totally fine with - it was a fun surprise! 

I only used the first dungeon delve encounter, which means I get to expand the delve a bit more for the next session.  Which should be a lot of fun.  I have some campaign info I really want to divulge, and I'm going to try to give as much away as possible within the next session. 

Apparently, though, the PCs are pretty close to hitting level 8... which is surprising, since I've only given away three treasure packets so far!  Giving XP for skill challenges should probably be tinkered with, but I don't mind fast progression. 

It does mean that I'm going to have to give away a lot of treasure within the next session.  Which I'm sure the players will be fine with - three magic items are upcoming, as well as a *lot* of gold pieces (and the PCs have been out of town for a long time, so they'll have a lot to spend once they get to a safe haven!). 

The magical boots, by the way, are simply Elven boots, which are perfect for Seahorse - a +2 bonus to speed and stealth, once per encounter.  Should help her get into combat advantage a bit more, though she did great this session in that regard.