We've slogged through the Underdark, fighting drow, ogres, drow, spiders, drow, goblins, oh and did I mention the drow? We've recovered to two halves of the Pendant of Ashabba and freed countless slaves. We've become stronger than ever before, all leading up to this moment - BOSS FIGHT!
I can't accurately describe the scene for this Encounters session because, due in part to legitimate personal misfortunes, our DM misplaced the map. In previous versions of the game, I gather that maps were not essential - I vaguely remember playing 2nd Edition with my brother and his friends, and we hardly used a map at all. Not so much in 4th Edition, in my experience. Still, we powered through by modifying the map from a previous encounter. Before any fighting - through a magical MacGuffin - we all got bonuses based on our role. I was a "theocrat," e.g. a cleric, so I got to heal my allies whenever I hit. Too bad I never hit with this character. *sad trombone noise*
The task in this session was two-fold: first, we had to defeat Valan Jaelre, the drow spellcaster/BBEG, a couple of driders, and several flying drow baddies. No problem, right? Luckily for someone (either the bad guys or us, not entirely sure) our modified map included a bottleneck/choke point. Our defender stood right in the middle of everything and soaked up damage, and I stood right behind him and kept him alive. I realized later that the flying - excuse me, levitating - drow were actually out of range for us (we were an overwhelmingly melee party) for most of the battle. Chalk this one up to DM inattention, and see above re: legitimate personal misfortunes.
While we were fighting off the drow, we also had to perform a ritual to repair the Pendant of Ashabba - we had to heat it, douse it in water, then bind it with the blood of our NPC ally/heir to the kingdom, Khara. Our goblin scout took his first turn to throw the pieces into a fire, then took his next turn trying to set up step three to save time. Specifically, he ran up to Khara and STABBED HER WITH HIS DAGGER. It was kind of hilarious. He then wiped off the blood with a piece of his tunic and gave both the locket and the rag to our rouge, whose speed was eight. She dashed across the board (thanks in part to the fact that the MacGuffin let her be insubstantial during her turn), dipped the pendant in water, wrapped it up in the blood-stained cloth, and hey presto! Pendant and peace were restored. The peasants rejoiced - yay. What we thought was the BBEG turned out to be nothing but a simulacrum, however, meaning that the real Valan Jaelre is still out there somewhere...
To be continued in D&D Encounters: Council of Spiders!
I can't accurately describe the scene for this Encounters session because, due in part to legitimate personal misfortunes, our DM misplaced the map. In previous versions of the game, I gather that maps were not essential - I vaguely remember playing 2nd Edition with my brother and his friends, and we hardly used a map at all. Not so much in 4th Edition, in my experience. Still, we powered through by modifying the map from a previous encounter. Before any fighting - through a magical MacGuffin - we all got bonuses based on our role. I was a "theocrat," e.g. a cleric, so I got to heal my allies whenever I hit. Too bad I never hit with this character. *sad trombone noise*
The task in this session was two-fold: first, we had to defeat Valan Jaelre, the drow spellcaster/BBEG, a couple of driders, and several flying drow baddies. No problem, right? Luckily for someone (either the bad guys or us, not entirely sure) our modified map included a bottleneck/choke point. Our defender stood right in the middle of everything and soaked up damage, and I stood right behind him and kept him alive. I realized later that the flying - excuse me, levitating - drow were actually out of range for us (we were an overwhelmingly melee party) for most of the battle. Chalk this one up to DM inattention, and see above re: legitimate personal misfortunes.
While we were fighting off the drow, we also had to perform a ritual to repair the Pendant of Ashabba - we had to heat it, douse it in water, then bind it with the blood of our NPC ally/heir to the kingdom, Khara. Our goblin scout took his first turn to throw the pieces into a fire, then took his next turn trying to set up step three to save time. Specifically, he ran up to Khara and STABBED HER WITH HIS DAGGER. It was kind of hilarious. He then wiped off the blood with a piece of his tunic and gave both the locket and the rag to our rouge, whose speed was eight. She dashed across the board (thanks in part to the fact that the MacGuffin let her be insubstantial during her turn), dipped the pendant in water, wrapped it up in the blood-stained cloth, and hey presto! Pendant and peace were restored. The peasants rejoiced - yay. What we thought was the BBEG turned out to be nothing but a simulacrum, however, meaning that the real Valan Jaelre is still out there somewhere...
To be continued in D&D Encounters: Council of Spiders!
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| Is it just me, or does the drow on the right (Valan Jaelre?) have super weird look on his face? |
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