The Bandoleers Session 027
DM's Log: Supplemental...Session 027
Date: 2022-06-01
Party: The Bandoleers
- Kilomir, Minotaur Wild-Magic Barbarian
- Faegwyn Suithrasas, High Elf School of Evocation Wizard
- Ollie, Tiefling Way of the Long Death Monk
- Mick Nichols, Rock Gnome Assassin Rogue
- Accompanied by his trusty sidekick/mount, a Giant Duck named Lumpy
- Melisende, Cleric of Aelys and temporary Retainer accompanying the party
Session 027 Recap
We pick up at the beginning of the session exactly where we left off: immediately after the party fended off 12 hungry zombies and their Wight leader in the middle of the night. Though mostly unscathed, the party opted to finish their rest, and slept in.
Before resuming their journey, they searched the Zombie's corpses1, before deciding to hide them far enough off the side of the road that they wouldn't be seen. They then set off to make the final day's trek to the keep. Along the way, they came across an abandoned camp, complete with weapons and armor, presumably from the zombified guards.
Arriving at their destination at dusk, they prudently opted to make camp a safe distance away rather than approaching the keep at night. In the morning, Mick rode Lumpy up to survey their destination. He discovered the keep was dark, silent, and utterly absent of any sign of life, with the gate standing wide open and seemingly unprotected. Mick returned to the group with this news, and they concocted a plan: hide the wagon, approach on foot, sneak around back, and have Lumpy fly a rope attached to a grappling hook up to the top of the keep.
And so, a few good stealth rolls later, the party found themselves on the roof of the castle, inching down a dark staircase into the top floor of the keep. They poked around in a large dining area, noting the old food on the central table and investigating a couple statues around the perimeter of the room that Faegwyn determined were probably former Knights of the Westerwatch. Meanwhile, Mick got to work picking a locked door on one side of the room, and Kilomir kept a lookout.
Unfortunately, a very low perception roll meant that Kilomir was keeping an eye out for threats coming from outside the room, and failed to notice the 5 Boneless (undead remains lacking their skeletons) slithering out from beneath the large dining table in the center of the room.
The ambush led to a short but pitched battle, with the party successfully defeating the Boneless, though not before Mick was engulfed by one of the "Undead Murder Blankets" and nearly smothered to death. But Kilomir's Longsword of the Forgotten Paladin, with its extra Radiant Damage against Undead, Faegwyn's punishing Scorching Rays, and Ollie's onslaught of fists made quick work of their foes. The Party emerged from the fight a little battered, a little bruised, but ready to press deeper into the Westerwatch.
DM's Post Mortem
Okay, so two things stuck out to me about this session.
First, if you give one of your players a flying mount, assume they will use it for unconventional approaches to entering dungeons. I had a whole thing planned with a closing portcullis trap, which I've been itching to try out and was going to use with the entrance to the keep, and it was completely defanged just by them deciding to do an aerial insertion. Plus, now they're going through my encounter design backwards. Ah well.
Second, if you have a campaign that will heavily feature a certain type of enemy, don't give the low-level players a weapon that does 2d10 magical bonus damage against enemies of that type, especially if those enemies often have weaknesses to said type. Or at least, equally distribute that among the party. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a situation where one character consistently outpaces the rest of the party in ways that are hard to balance around. Obvious in retrospect, but I don't think I really considered how much extra damage 2d10 is on every attack.
That's all for this post! Life's been a bit hectic recently (that's why this post is almost a month late), so I've got a small backlog of sessions to post about, so stay tuned for those!