1.08 Bad Blood Report

General Summary

We start our session with a harmless conversation. We end out session with a horrible death.   Kreck, Tbom, and Lucky are talking with the Sculptor. Kreck takes point in explaining that they are here to deliver reagents from Hallod, who they beat up, as a job for a female half Orc (Tamli). The Sculptor doesn't really buy the tale, but doesn't see anything sinister in the lie, so allows the trio to leave the reagents and go, getting 5 gold for their troubles. Attempts to learn anything useful in the conversation were rare. Kreck doesn't really push for information, though he does ask after the stone horse and learns it is an experiment and that the Sculpto can do the same to any animal. They also learn that Vilree was the one supplying Hallod with his medicine. As the party begins to leave, it is at this moment that the momentum that Kreck has a clever idea.   He wants Lucky to search the desk and to give him cover, he had lucky pretend to be a bird on his shoulder. He 'flies' the bird past the sculptor and into the desk. The Sculptor is angry and confused, but lucky hides his larceny well and gathers items into the haversack. It is at this moment that Tbom, seeing a distracted orc and a bunch of expensive reagents, makes his move. He tries to gather some without being noticed. Unfortunately for him, the Sculptor does see him and combat begins.   The Sculptor leaves the room to the west; Lucky and Kreck follow. Meanwhile Tbom convinces the other orcs that there is a fire and they all run out. While this is happening, the outside group were discovered and the orc guard runs towards the cave, meeting the fleeing orcs at the entrance. Spirtual Weapons, Web spells, and punch/kick combos clear do some damage. The Orc Alchemists run back into the cave.   Inside the lab, kreck and Lucky find the sculptor who has set a trap for them. From the body on a table pours a creature made of corrupted blood, a Blood Ooze. The Sculptor takes some hard hits from Kreck and runs. The Blood Ooze moves slowly to range of the half orc and slaps him with dangerous pseudo pods. Kreck is dropped by the Ooze and Persistent Bleed finds him in a dangerous situation. Lucky hides under the table and is able to survive until the Sculptor rolls a fire bomb under as well, stacking fire persist with bleed persist. Lucky quickly goes down. Hero points are used and Kreck clears his persist. Lucky does not, rolling a natural 1 and putting him one round from death. Tbom throws some bombs and does some good damage to the Ooze, but he too gets slapped and goes down from persist bleed.   Outside, the party follows the alchemists into their lab and Dog dodges a pool of chemicals from a cauldron. Veerefel drops this one. Ylandra makes haste to find the other one, spots her once, but loses her in the next room, not knowing there was a secret door. The party makes their way into the Blood Ooze chamber. The gastly scene of bodies everywhere doesn't slow them down. Gunnar goes to help Kreck and Kal makes haste to help lucky. Kreck is healed and brought up. Kal's check however finds Lucky to be dead. Yet something is strange. He calls out 'Y'all, there is something strange here...' and at that moment the Blood Ooze bursts from Lucky's body.   The party take significant damage from the fray. Ylandra connects with a series of big blows but finds that the creature is immune to critical attacks. Veerefel curses the Ooze with unlife making it a target for damage from group healing. Kreck throws hatchets and Tbom throws fire. The Ooze falls beneath the collective work and the party breathes a mournful sigh to the loss of their friend, Lucky.

Rewards Granted

XP

• Defeat the Sculptor: 60xp Everyone
• Defeat the Blood Ooze: 100xp Everyone
• Defeat 2 Orc Brutes: 50xp Everyone
• Defeat 2 Orc Alchemists: 80xp Everyone
• Kreck throwing Lucky: 10xp to Kreck
• Kal using web at a choke point: 10xp to Kal
• Ylandra doing top DPS to Blood Ooze: 25xp Ylandra
• Veerefel discovering a new way to use his powers: 15xp Veerefel
• Dualing Spiritual Weapons: 10xp Gunnar & Veerefel
• Tbom convincing the Orcs of a fire: 30xp Tbom
• Kreck asking about St-horse: 5xp Kreck
• Lucky's unlucky day: Auto 3rd level and 250xp bonus to Cola's next character

Discoveries (You search the entire cave)

• Advanced Alchemical Lab (reduces the time to craft by 1 day)
• A prototype Alchemical Crossbow
• A Secret Door which we'll deal with next session
• A pen with a Fire Leopard which we'll deal with next session
• Delivery Notes to Spites Cradle (in Roll20 Journal now)
• Sculptor's Notes (In Roll20 Journal now)
• Blight Groundwater Map (In Roll20 Journal now)

Loot

• 100gp worth of reagents
• Crafter's eyepeice (magical)
• Leather Apron of Acid Resistance 5 (can be worn over armor)
• Stash of 18 gp in loose coins
• Silver Scales (30gp value)
• Potion of Lesser Acid Resistance
• Lesser Bomber's Eye elixir
• 1 lesser elixir of life
• 3 Moderate alchemist's fire infusions
• 4 Moderate Frost Vials infusions
• 4 lesser acid flasks
• 4 lesser bottled lightnings
• 4 lesser alchemist's fire
• 5 knuckle daggers
• 3 sets studded leather armor

Alchemical Crossbow   This crossbow can deliver alchemically infused bolts. The strange weapon has a metal bracket mounted on the side of the stock near the lath. As an action, you can load a single lesser alchemical bomb into the bracket; this bomb must be one that deals energy damage (such as an acid flask, alchemist’s fire, bottled lightning, frost vial, or thunderstone). The next three attacks made with the crossbow deal 1d6 damage of the bomb’s damage type in addition to the crossbow’s normal damage. If the second and third attacks are not all made within 1 minute of the first attack, the bomb’s energy is wasted. These attacks never deal splash damage or other special effects of the bomb and are not modified by any abilities that add to or modify a bomb’s effect. The addition of the bracket serves to unbalance the weapon, reducing its range to 30 feet. It otherwise functions as a crossbow (when determining damage, reload, and so on). Creatures use their crossbow proficiency when using the alchemical crossbow. The alchemical crossbow costs 25 gp.

Notes

Death of a Character   Character Death is a sad but important part of a roleplaying game. A character death brings into focus the danger and gives stakes to the combat. As many of you know, I run a D&D game with a pretty stake-free policy of character death. That game has a fun, silly, carefree tone that I find perfect for that system. In this system, the tone should be able to shift from fun and light-hearted to serious and tension filled when combat starts. Unfortunately we had one character death. More unfortunately for the Low Bar, the combats are not going to get any easier from here out.   Thoughts on Boss Battle Post Mortem (Sorry Lucky)   Here are a few of my thoughts on what worked and what didn't in the boss battle.   Kiting and Distance   Melee fighters in this game are going to find they can't always stand toe-to-toe with their enemies. In this case, the Blood Ooze had a really low AC, but DR of 5 against slashing and piercing, 90 HP, and reach of 10 with a +15 to hit and 1d12 +8 damage per hit. Thats a brutal close combat fight for anyone 3rd level. The key to this fight was realizing the Ooze only had 10ft of movement an action and was brainless and easily Kited. All Melee Fighters should pick up a ranged attack option in cases like these where fighting toe-to-toe is the wrong strat.   Watch Numbers for Critical Threats   The Blood Ooze was throwing out frequent numbers like 30 vs AC. If your AC is below 20, then that's a hint that this monster will have a high Critical Hit frequency. The numbers for the boss were build to exploit the Critical Hit system doing massive damage frequently when in range of the pods. When you see a high Critical Hit chance, do what you can to avoid it because you are mathmatically at a huge disadvantage in that situation and its usually by design.   Hit and Run   There are ways to be a melee and still avoid the danger zone. One thought is Move in, Hit, then Move out. In this game you usually don't want to stay in one place and take hits if you can avoid it. The multi-hit penalty is there to give you an incentive to move around. This is why most monsters do NOT have opportunity attacks.   Shields Up   There are times when maximizing your survivability is more important than maximizing your attack damage. All classes can use shields with some limitations. Shields are great ways to reduce damage and still do some attacks. With three actions, you can swap in and out from shield to two handed every other round and there are feats that help do it more frequently.   Conclusion   The numbers are never going to be in the characters favor in big battles. Even with Fast Leveling, You won't out-level the danger of these fights. Reading the combat as it is happening is the best way to identify danger zones and weak spots in your enemies