first of, hopefully, many stories
Hello FJ. I DM for a fourth edition party that I have come to love. I thought I might share a few stories about them with you, if there's any interest at all I'll post more stories. Haven't done any stories in this fashion before, so I hope it's satisfactory. This particular story is about a Bag of Boulders.
The Party:
Sovexis, Male Eladrin Warlord- Your usual paragon LG hero, new player, but extremely enthusiastic at roleplaying and learned fast, and was never boring. Had very little backstory to speak of, anything that's relevant to further stories will be mentioned later. Probably my favorite in the party, but with these guys, it's so hard to choose.
Roland Barlow, Male, Human Sorcerer- CG aligned. Had some experience with tabletops and brought two friends along(the warlord and fighter) to this, their first campaign. He's a really nice guy out of D&D but could be a 'that guy' in campaigns. He did not do that in this campaign in the slightest, became party face without stealing spotlight and held the occasionally fractious party together with his immense charisma.
Thermin, Female Tiefling Fighter- CN aligned. I did not peg her player down as the sort of person that would stick around because OOC she didn't seem enthusiastic about tabletops, but she created her character with no help, played a very well rounded and powerful tank that saved our **** constantly, and roleplayed CN perfectly. She caused most of the party's divisions, because she was more comfortable with bloodshed than the good aligned party.
Galeas, Male Elf Ranger- NG aligned. He was also new and wasn't too comfortable with roleplay but got better over time. In general, he was quiet in roleplay moments, and because of this I didn't ever throw him too far out of his comfort zone like I could do with Sovexis, and challenge his alignment.
Franziska, Female Human Rogue- Chaotic Good(supposedly, I would say chaotic neutral slightly aligned towards good.).This character's player was the closest thing to a 'that guy' we had for the campaign, but even this was more fun than annoying- it kept me on my toes. The character was twelve or thirteen, I forget which, and spent much of her time hoarding 'useless' flavor magical items that she somehow found a use for them in combat. As such, knowing this, the blame for what happened next was placed squarely on my shoulders.
So, the scene;
Our party had just finished fighting off several clay guards or whatever the **** they're called, some kind of homunculi, and a few other homunculi I had homebrewed. They were guarding a chamber at the very bottom of a tower dungeon, and had taken some pretty decent damage thanks to nobody having good will defences but Roland and Franziska, but they had one more chamber to go.
Sovexis: Alright, gentlemen, ladies- I still have one of my two warlord heal things, and I know we're still injured from last encounter, but I want to save that for when we really need it. Alright?
With rousing pre-boss speech finished, he began opening the doors.
Franziska: Hold on, just a moment. I'm not done searching for loot.
Galeas: But these were just crappy minions, they don't usually have loot, I thought?
F: Nah, but see, DM described that there was a pile of junk in one corner(i had) and if he described it it must be important.
She was reading too much into it, but I saw no reason to stop her, so she rolled. Nat 20, obviously. I sighed and looked at some of my notes for magical items, trying to find one that would be relatively inoffensive but would also satisfy the player. Like i said earlier, mistakes were made here. I was too eager to please an entirely new party( to me, if not to D&D) and keep them entertained, and I was new to DMing. I saw the bag of boulders.
Me: Searching through the detritus, you find bones, bent shields and rusted helmets, broken swords, but also one leather pouch that has, strangely, not rotted. Roll arcana.
She rolled well enough that I didn't feel like making her figure out how it worked by itself, so I told her OOC how it worked.
Me: Alright, this thing is called the Bag of Boulders. You can place pebbles inside and have them turn into a boulder that is roughly spherical and will fully occupy its square on the grid, so roughly five by five by five feet. This effect is activated by taking a pebble that has been stored in the bag for more than a minute out, and after being thrown, rolled or dropped it will transform.
At this point I noticed an evil gleam in her eyes, for the first time of many that I worked with this player. I did not know the person , she was a friend(more like acquaintence) of a friend that I invited on a whim. I still knew that whatever she was thinking, it couldn't be good, so i decided to strike pre-emptively.
Me: But there's a catch. The long time it's spent in this dungeon have harmed the enchantment, so you may only use this power one time before the bag is destroyed.
With creative use, that was still more than enough.
Roland: Ok, that could be useful. Hold onto that, we can save the charges for a tight spot. Sovexis, open the door. All of you, go in before me, I have the worst defences and have already taken some hits.
He gave me what can't really be described as a glare, but I think he knew, being somewhat experienced as a player and moreso as a DM, that I had just ****** up.
The massive double doors were opened by the warlord and fighter, and they walked in, followed by the ranger and rogue, and finally the sorcerer. I'd like to say that I worked hard on this encounter. It was really supposed to be a challenge unlike any the low-level party had yet faced, but I won't bother going into details because it ended so quickly. The target was a metal 'statue' in the center of a dungeon that had extreme AC , good will(not that it mattered, nobody had attacks that were defended by will) great fortitude and kind of crap reflex. It had several long spears bristling from its back, each of which could glow and cast a fairly powerful spell at the party while summoning weak minions to annoy and distract our heroes.
Battle map was drawn out, grids set up, initiative was rolled. All but the fighter, Thermin, moved before the statue, with the rogue and her naturally high dex going first.
F: Ok, before I move or do anything I need more description. About that bag of boulders-
Thermin: This again? Can we just get to the fight?
F: Give me a moment, I'm going somewhere with this. If I drop the pebble I put in the bag when I found it on the ground, would the boulder's center be wherever the pebble was? I mean, would it carve out a two and a half foot chunk of this floor and replace it with boulder?
Me: No, you can't bisect the boss by putting the pebble next to him. I'll say that it pushes away from anything immediately next to it, so if you dropped it on the floor it would sort of bounce up and leave a bit of an indent in the ground.
F: Okay, shame, but what does this thing- the statue, that is- look like? I mean, besides the spears, how accurate does it look to a human form?
Me: Very. It has eyes that move to observe your party, and a face that is perpetually screaming in rage or agony.
F: Screaming? So, mouth open, then.
I didn't like where this was going.
Me: Yes, why?
F: I'm going to make this statue eat **** . Or rocks, I suppose. If I force the pebble down its throat, it should blow up from the inside out and kill it instantly, unless it reforms like that thing from the terminator movie that can pull itself back together. Even so, it should take heavy damage. Come on, tell me I'm wrong. That's how you said it works, isn't it?
I sighed. There wasn't really any getting around that; she was right. There was still too much ground for her to cover in one turn to do this without throwing it, and since she knew she had one shot at this she wanted to do it right. So, she'd at least have to contend with summoned minions and whatever random attack my animated statue had in store. The party, sans thermin, all moved forward in their turn.
R: Ok, just in case this either doesn't work at all for some reason or somehow ***** us, I'm going to make attacks anyway. Would I be right to assume that it has fairly low reflex, being a statue? Would it also be resistant to thunder damage?
He was right on both counts, but it wasn't like I was going to tell him that. I'm not sure how you're 'supposed' to do it, but I don't think players need to know enemy defences, and are perfectly capable of finding out themselves when their rolls either work or don't.
R: You're suspiciously silent. Anywho, gonna use a lightning strike(defended by reflext for those not familiar, rather than his other at will, which is defended by fort). He rolled reasonably, and with his very high charisma modifier even at a low level he hit for a moderate amount of damage. Our ranger, an archer, went next, and failed to hit either of his twin strikes because of the enemy's high ac.
After the warlord walked forward but couldn't make any ranged attacks, it was my monster's turn. It let me down miserably, consuming one of the spears to hurl what should have been a firy blast to burn the area under the party's feet. I think the monster rolled a three or four or something against our party's reflex, which was obviously not a pass. However, even on a miss, the guy still summoned two clay minions.
F: Well, damn. That could make it more complex. I'm hoping there's some sort of, I dunno, summoning sickness or something? They can't go this turn, can they?
Me: No, Thermin's turn, go.
As could maybe be seen because of my caveman speak, I wasn't too happy at the moment. One lucky roll could screw my encounter that I had worked on for a while. It wasn't that plot relevant, sure, but it was one of my first tries at creating my own monster, and I wanted something to show for it- some kind of challenge, if not a PC death. Of course, even if it hadn't been my own creation, it still would have suffered the same horrible fate.
Thermin went, moving forwards and stopping, and then it was Franziska's turn again.
F: Ok, gonna roll acrobatics to vault over the clay summons and deliver the dosage. Can you tell me the DC on that?
Me: Well, between jumping over monsters into the way of a more dangerous monster, I'm going to say, factoring in this thing's reflex score... twenty six.
Galeas: Wait, hold on, the dice only go up to- ohh, right, modifiers.
F:Well, not as bad as it sounds, Between being trained in that skill and my dex mod... oh, and half my level, almost forgot, I have a mod of +10. Let's do this.
She kissed her dice(I had been warned of this, and made sure she only used her own set) and rolled.
G: No ******* way. Hold on, wait, is that a tie? Does defender win?
She had rolled a nat 16. I sighed, and shuffled the notes on the boss into my folder, never to be seen again.
R: No, in 4e attacker wins, so it's a go. Well, describe it for us, boss.
Me: You perform a leap with a running start, vaulting off the back of one summoned creature to reach the statue's mouth. The momentum of your jump launches the pebble in your hand down its throat with a sound like a marble down a drainpipe.
F: **** YES! I love this bag!
I wasn't done yet.
Me: Hold on. First of all, bag's gone. As you pull the pebble from the pouch, the leather seems to feel the ravages of time all at once and it disintegrates as you watch. The enchantment burned out. Second of all...
I rolled the dice behind my screen. My players cringed instinctively.
Me: Well, I'd ask your reflex score, but it's irrelevant. Big guy here just rolled a 20 trying to grab you. As you finish your leap, attempting to make a three-point landing, you hear a snarl that sounds like a clanging of gears, and a cold hand grips your arm.
F: Uh, guys, help, I'm not liking how close this guy is-
I interrupted her with the sound of rolling dice.
Me: Well, good news and bad news. As you turn to look at the statue, it seems to deform and then explode in a fraction of a second, with a large rock emerging where its torso used to be. Fragments of metal fly like bullets in every direction, including in your direction- you are now less than half a foot away from the rock. Good news is, that d20 I just rolled got a four, so you only get hit by four pieces of shrapnel. Who has the d8?
This may have been slightly petty of me, but it made sense, and nobody- not even Franziska- complained about it. I like to think this encounter set me up with the confidence i'd need to decide rule changes on the fly later in campaign, in more serious and fun encounters. Perhaps more importantly, it showed me that the law of conservation of mass is not to be mocked.
Roland passed me the d8, and I rolled. 8, 1, 7, 8. I ruled that two hit her inbetween ribs, one grazed her face under her eye, and one hit a rib. This put her in the negatives, just barely.
S: Well, **** . I'm gonna have to heal her, then. Is the encounter over? It could be a problem otherwise. I guess iron man is dead, but are the things he summoned, too?
Me: Yeah, dungeon crawl is over, you can have your loot and EXP.
What stories would you like to hear next? The first time our party got into an argument, IC and OOC, about morality? Roland being a team mom? Sovexis's first shining example of roleplay? If you have any questions, post below. Hopefully there'll be at least some interest. Bye for now!
The Party:
Sovexis, Male Eladrin Warlord- Your usual paragon LG hero, new player, but extremely enthusiastic at roleplaying and learned fast, and was never boring. Had very little backstory to speak of, anything that's relevant to further stories will be mentioned later. Probably my favorite in the party, but with these guys, it's so hard to choose.
Roland Barlow, Male, Human Sorcerer- CG aligned. Had some experience with tabletops and brought two friends along(the warlord and fighter) to this, their first campaign. He's a really nice guy out of D&D but could be a 'that guy' in campaigns. He did not do that in this campaign in the slightest, became party face without stealing spotlight and held the occasionally fractious party together with his immense charisma.
Thermin, Female Tiefling Fighter- CN aligned. I did not peg her player down as the sort of person that would stick around because OOC she didn't seem enthusiastic about tabletops, but she created her character with no help, played a very well rounded and powerful tank that saved our **** constantly, and roleplayed CN perfectly. She caused most of the party's divisions, because she was more comfortable with bloodshed than the good aligned party.
Galeas, Male Elf Ranger- NG aligned. He was also new and wasn't too comfortable with roleplay but got better over time. In general, he was quiet in roleplay moments, and because of this I didn't ever throw him too far out of his comfort zone like I could do with Sovexis, and challenge his alignment.
Franziska, Female Human Rogue- Chaotic Good(supposedly, I would say chaotic neutral slightly aligned towards good.).This character's player was the closest thing to a 'that guy' we had for the campaign, but even this was more fun than annoying- it kept me on my toes. The character was twelve or thirteen, I forget which, and spent much of her time hoarding 'useless' flavor magical items that she somehow found a use for them in combat. As such, knowing this, the blame for what happened next was placed squarely on my shoulders.
So, the scene;
Our party had just finished fighting off several clay guards or whatever the **** they're called, some kind of homunculi, and a few other homunculi I had homebrewed. They were guarding a chamber at the very bottom of a tower dungeon, and had taken some pretty decent damage thanks to nobody having good will defences but Roland and Franziska, but they had one more chamber to go.
Sovexis: Alright, gentlemen, ladies- I still have one of my two warlord heal things, and I know we're still injured from last encounter, but I want to save that for when we really need it. Alright?
With rousing pre-boss speech finished, he began opening the doors.
Franziska: Hold on, just a moment. I'm not done searching for loot.
Galeas: But these were just crappy minions, they don't usually have loot, I thought?
F: Nah, but see, DM described that there was a pile of junk in one corner(i had) and if he described it it must be important.
She was reading too much into it, but I saw no reason to stop her, so she rolled. Nat 20, obviously. I sighed and looked at some of my notes for magical items, trying to find one that would be relatively inoffensive but would also satisfy the player. Like i said earlier, mistakes were made here. I was too eager to please an entirely new party( to me, if not to D&D) and keep them entertained, and I was new to DMing. I saw the bag of boulders.
Me: Searching through the detritus, you find bones, bent shields and rusted helmets, broken swords, but also one leather pouch that has, strangely, not rotted. Roll arcana.
She rolled well enough that I didn't feel like making her figure out how it worked by itself, so I told her OOC how it worked.
Me: Alright, this thing is called the Bag of Boulders. You can place pebbles inside and have them turn into a boulder that is roughly spherical and will fully occupy its square on the grid, so roughly five by five by five feet. This effect is activated by taking a pebble that has been stored in the bag for more than a minute out, and after being thrown, rolled or dropped it will transform.
At this point I noticed an evil gleam in her eyes, for the first time of many that I worked with this player. I did not know the person , she was a friend(more like acquaintence) of a friend that I invited on a whim. I still knew that whatever she was thinking, it couldn't be good, so i decided to strike pre-emptively.
Me: But there's a catch. The long time it's spent in this dungeon have harmed the enchantment, so you may only use this power one time before the bag is destroyed.
With creative use, that was still more than enough.
Roland: Ok, that could be useful. Hold onto that, we can save the charges for a tight spot. Sovexis, open the door. All of you, go in before me, I have the worst defences and have already taken some hits.
He gave me what can't really be described as a glare, but I think he knew, being somewhat experienced as a player and moreso as a DM, that I had just ****** up.
The massive double doors were opened by the warlord and fighter, and they walked in, followed by the ranger and rogue, and finally the sorcerer. I'd like to say that I worked hard on this encounter. It was really supposed to be a challenge unlike any the low-level party had yet faced, but I won't bother going into details because it ended so quickly. The target was a metal 'statue' in the center of a dungeon that had extreme AC , good will(not that it mattered, nobody had attacks that were defended by will) great fortitude and kind of crap reflex. It had several long spears bristling from its back, each of which could glow and cast a fairly powerful spell at the party while summoning weak minions to annoy and distract our heroes.
Battle map was drawn out, grids set up, initiative was rolled. All but the fighter, Thermin, moved before the statue, with the rogue and her naturally high dex going first.
F: Ok, before I move or do anything I need more description. About that bag of boulders-
Thermin: This again? Can we just get to the fight?
F: Give me a moment, I'm going somewhere with this. If I drop the pebble I put in the bag when I found it on the ground, would the boulder's center be wherever the pebble was? I mean, would it carve out a two and a half foot chunk of this floor and replace it with boulder?
Me: No, you can't bisect the boss by putting the pebble next to him. I'll say that it pushes away from anything immediately next to it, so if you dropped it on the floor it would sort of bounce up and leave a bit of an indent in the ground.
F: Okay, shame, but what does this thing- the statue, that is- look like? I mean, besides the spears, how accurate does it look to a human form?
Me: Very. It has eyes that move to observe your party, and a face that is perpetually screaming in rage or agony.
F: Screaming? So, mouth open, then.
I didn't like where this was going.
Me: Yes, why?
F: I'm going to make this statue eat **** . Or rocks, I suppose. If I force the pebble down its throat, it should blow up from the inside out and kill it instantly, unless it reforms like that thing from the terminator movie that can pull itself back together. Even so, it should take heavy damage. Come on, tell me I'm wrong. That's how you said it works, isn't it?
I sighed. There wasn't really any getting around that; she was right. There was still too much ground for her to cover in one turn to do this without throwing it, and since she knew she had one shot at this she wanted to do it right. So, she'd at least have to contend with summoned minions and whatever random attack my animated statue had in store. The party, sans thermin, all moved forward in their turn.
R: Ok, just in case this either doesn't work at all for some reason or somehow ***** us, I'm going to make attacks anyway. Would I be right to assume that it has fairly low reflex, being a statue? Would it also be resistant to thunder damage?
He was right on both counts, but it wasn't like I was going to tell him that. I'm not sure how you're 'supposed' to do it, but I don't think players need to know enemy defences, and are perfectly capable of finding out themselves when their rolls either work or don't.
R: You're suspiciously silent. Anywho, gonna use a lightning strike(defended by reflext for those not familiar, rather than his other at will, which is defended by fort). He rolled reasonably, and with his very high charisma modifier even at a low level he hit for a moderate amount of damage. Our ranger, an archer, went next, and failed to hit either of his twin strikes because of the enemy's high ac.
After the warlord walked forward but couldn't make any ranged attacks, it was my monster's turn. It let me down miserably, consuming one of the spears to hurl what should have been a firy blast to burn the area under the party's feet. I think the monster rolled a three or four or something against our party's reflex, which was obviously not a pass. However, even on a miss, the guy still summoned two clay minions.
F: Well, damn. That could make it more complex. I'm hoping there's some sort of, I dunno, summoning sickness or something? They can't go this turn, can they?
Me: No, Thermin's turn, go.
As could maybe be seen because of my caveman speak, I wasn't too happy at the moment. One lucky roll could screw my encounter that I had worked on for a while. It wasn't that plot relevant, sure, but it was one of my first tries at creating my own monster, and I wanted something to show for it- some kind of challenge, if not a PC death. Of course, even if it hadn't been my own creation, it still would have suffered the same horrible fate.
Thermin went, moving forwards and stopping, and then it was Franziska's turn again.
F: Ok, gonna roll acrobatics to vault over the clay summons and deliver the dosage. Can you tell me the DC on that?
Me: Well, between jumping over monsters into the way of a more dangerous monster, I'm going to say, factoring in this thing's reflex score... twenty six.
Galeas: Wait, hold on, the dice only go up to- ohh, right, modifiers.
F:Well, not as bad as it sounds, Between being trained in that skill and my dex mod... oh, and half my level, almost forgot, I have a mod of +10. Let's do this.
She kissed her dice(I had been warned of this, and made sure she only used her own set) and rolled.
G: No ******* way. Hold on, wait, is that a tie? Does defender win?
She had rolled a nat 16. I sighed, and shuffled the notes on the boss into my folder, never to be seen again.
R: No, in 4e attacker wins, so it's a go. Well, describe it for us, boss.
Me: You perform a leap with a running start, vaulting off the back of one summoned creature to reach the statue's mouth. The momentum of your jump launches the pebble in your hand down its throat with a sound like a marble down a drainpipe.
F: **** YES! I love this bag!
I wasn't done yet.
Me: Hold on. First of all, bag's gone. As you pull the pebble from the pouch, the leather seems to feel the ravages of time all at once and it disintegrates as you watch. The enchantment burned out. Second of all...
I rolled the dice behind my screen. My players cringed instinctively.
Me: Well, I'd ask your reflex score, but it's irrelevant. Big guy here just rolled a 20 trying to grab you. As you finish your leap, attempting to make a three-point landing, you hear a snarl that sounds like a clanging of gears, and a cold hand grips your arm.
F: Uh, guys, help, I'm not liking how close this guy is-
I interrupted her with the sound of rolling dice.
Me: Well, good news and bad news. As you turn to look at the statue, it seems to deform and then explode in a fraction of a second, with a large rock emerging where its torso used to be. Fragments of metal fly like bullets in every direction, including in your direction- you are now less than half a foot away from the rock. Good news is, that d20 I just rolled got a four, so you only get hit by four pieces of shrapnel. Who has the d8?
This may have been slightly petty of me, but it made sense, and nobody- not even Franziska- complained about it. I like to think this encounter set me up with the confidence i'd need to decide rule changes on the fly later in campaign, in more serious and fun encounters. Perhaps more importantly, it showed me that the law of conservation of mass is not to be mocked.
Roland passed me the d8, and I rolled. 8, 1, 7, 8. I ruled that two hit her inbetween ribs, one grazed her face under her eye, and one hit a rib. This put her in the negatives, just barely.
S: Well, **** . I'm gonna have to heal her, then. Is the encounter over? It could be a problem otherwise. I guess iron man is dead, but are the things he summoned, too?
Me: Yeah, dungeon crawl is over, you can have your loot and EXP.
What stories would you like to hear next? The first time our party got into an argument, IC and OOC, about morality? Roland being a team mom? Sovexis's first shining example of roleplay? If you have any questions, post below. Hopefully there'll be at least some interest. Bye for now!
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