Encounter 27: Twilight Grove
Encounter Level 3 (700 XP)

Overview
The PCs take their first steps into the Twilight Grove and are attacked by a swarm of twig blights, unless they can move stealthily. The sounds of combat echoing in the grove will alert Belak (Encounter 28). This encounter includes the following creatures:

• 4 Gulthias twig blights
• 4 twig blight saplings
• 2 twig blight thornsprayers

Area Description
Read the following to the players when they first enter the grove:

Pale, spindly briars coated with tiny barbs press close. The violet light above casts nauseating shadows on the earthen floor, creating the illusion of movement among the branches of several small trees planted nearby, though no wind blows here.

The features of this area include:

• Illumination: Dim lighting
• Briars: Squares with briars are considered difficult terrain. Briars can be cleared from a square with a standard action
• Walls: Ruined sections of 20-foot high walls provide cover.

Tactics
A PC moving past a square with a twig blight must make a successful Stealth check (DC 14) or the creature will attack. After first contact, two twig blights will join combat every round.

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• Wood for the campfire
• Nature’s lore
• Compost central
• 4E Twig blight conversion
• Hall of the goblin chief

Montaron grumbled his displeasure, but I hissed at him to be quiet when a dark mass through the trees caught my eye. We all tensed then relaxed when we realized it was just the tattered husk of an overturned wagon. Still, I held my sword and shield ready as I made my way over to the wreck. Boxes and crates were strewn across the ground, and the body of the driver lay at one end of the wagon, two arrows protruding from his chest.

“The wounds still bleed,” Jahiera whispered at my shoulder and I nearly jumped. “This attack was recent.” As if on cue, two men slipped from their hiding places with bows drawn and arrows pointed at us.

“Drop your gold and walk away,” one of them ordered. I briefly wondered if perhaps the darkness prevented them from noticing they were outnumbered, but before I could say anything, Montaron unleashed a sling bullet, followed quickly by an arrow from Imoen. I fumbled for my own sling while Jahiera added her missile attack to the assault. The two bandits fell dead by the time I got a bullet ready. Imoen replenished her quiver from the bandits’ equipment, and Montaron discovered a crate full of gold. Jahiera frowned at the halfling, but he protested that it wasn’t doing the dead guy any good. I couldn’t fault his logic, and with the lack of anything to identify who it might belong to, I didn’t see the point in just letting it lay there for some other bandits to come by and steal.

“Heya, over here,” Imoen called out. We followed her up a small rise to another wreck that lay at the edge of a clearing. A wagon train had been dragged from the road at least a hundred yards away and tossed aside like a child’s toy. Before we could determine more, a towering figure crashed through the trees.

“Me will smash your face,” it roared.

Xzar screamed like a girl, but still managed to unleash a ball of necromantic energy at the ogre before running away to cower behind the overturned wagons. The rest of us unleashed several volleys of bullets and arrows as the ogre lumbered toward us. It loomed over Khalid, it’s club raised for a blow that would squash the elf like a bug, and I drew my sword, prepared to rush to my comrade’s side. Then an arrow sank between the ogre’s eyes and it fell with a strangled cry.

“Oh, my heart’s really not in this,” Khalid sighed and wiped his brow. I wondered if he were about to faint, but a blue glow from a belt the ogre wore drew my attention away. I bent down to get a closer look.

“Whatchya doin’?” Imoen asked over my shoulder.

“I’m trying to figure out why this belt is glowing.”

“The belt’s not glowing, silly.”

“Yes, it is. It’s glowing blue. I can see it as plain as…”

“Very interestink,” Xzar purred as he moved from his hiding place to stand next to me.

“Huh?”

“Blue aura’s are generally an indication of magical enchantment, but they usually aren’t visible to us normal folks without the assistance of a spell or certain magic items.”

I tried hard not to laugh at Xzar’s inclusion of himself as “normal folk,” so it took me a minute to realize what he said. “So, how come I can see it?”

“How should I know? I’m a magician, not a doctor,” Xzar said and walked away. I looked at Imoen, confused, but she spun her finger around her ear, crossed her eyes, and stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth. We both giggled and I turned back to remove the belt. I also took the bag of coins tied to the belt. I considered putting the belt on, but remembered a warning from Gorion that not all enchantments were benign. The belt would have to wait until we found someone who could identify its magic.

Sidebar: I remember having to cast detect magic in the original Pool of Radiance just to tell whether or not one of the items in the loot pile was enchanted. Then I had to take it to a shop to actually identify what it was. With Baldur’s Gate, Bioware swapped detect magic with identify, a design decision I don’t understand. If you’re going to remove a resource management mechanic, why replace it with a similar one.

I’d have preferred an implementation of both. Instead, I have to explain my ability to “see the auras” of magic items as a result of my as-yet-undiscovered divine heritage.

We returned to the road and continued south. As the gray sky lightened with the dawn, we found ourselves on the outskirts of Beregost.Similar Posts:

• Identifying magic items
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Crunch is jargon for the mechanics and math of a system. Racial mechanics typically include modifiers to a set of calculations or special abilities that can be used to affect gameplay. Some systems place restrictions on character advancement or what types of abilities a character can have based on race.

Fluff refers to the non-mechanical characteristics of a system object. These characteristics are there to add color to the game by describing the object in terms of the setting. Common examples of race-related fluff are how one race interacts with others or reasons why a race would go adventuring.

Most systems that implement race combine crunch and fluff. Some game systems seem to think that throwing a plethora of choices at players will result in a diversification of character races represented in actual play. What this actually results in is a pool of races that possess many overlapping characteristics, and are thus difficult to tell apart. To promote racial diversity in an RPG, make sure each race possesses significant differences, but are all equally viable. Or, like I did with my d00M roleplaying system, drop race as a mechanic all together.

There are multiple ways mechanically to distinguish one race from another. The most common is to use ability modifiers, i.e., bonuses or penalties to the base attribute scores of the PC. This would seem to be the ideal solution, except that it requires the system to give equal weight to all attributes, which is rare because there are usually one or two “dump” stats. The number of attributes also puts a limit on how many races you can produce before there starts to be overlap.

Another mechanical method for diversifying races is to give them unique features that affect gameplay. These can be difficult to balance, both in the number of abilities per race and how they interact with other game mechanics.

While crunch has its limits for promoting racial diversity, fluff knows no bounds. You are limited only by your imagination when it comes to how races look, what their heritage is, and how their cultural customs influence them. Players are more likely to try different races if they know the game won’t penalize them when their concept of their character doesn’t mesh well with the mechanics of gameplay.

I choose not to include races in the core rules for my d00M RPS. I wanted race to be a cosmetic choice. I wanted players to feel like their choice was just as viable if they wanted to play an axe-wielding barbarian, a shadow-skulking thief, or a spell-throwing wizard. I’ve never been a fan of the “racial profiling” that results from having race as a mechanic (not that I don’t take advantage of them).

What really distinguishes races is their physical appearance and cultural customs. Players tend to gravitate toward synergistic combinations, and it is much easier to come up with cultural reasons why a certain race might follow a particular archetype than it is to come up with mechanics that are varied enough that the race makes a viable choice for more than one role.

I’m interested in your thoughts on promoting racial diversity in RPGs. Share about your experiences around the table–do your games tend to be filled with elven rangers, dwarven clerics, halfing rogues, dragonborn paladins, and tiefling warlocks? What makes you choose one race over another? What systems do a good job of promoting racial diversity, and which ones tend to propagate stereotypes?
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This week, the editors are reviewing the scored posts and determining categories these posts should fall in. The tags provided during the peer review process will be the primary factor, but we will also be looking at the original volume of OGT as a reference.

We’ll be starting with the 40 posts that represent the top 10% of nominations based on the peer review scores. As we look at the possible categories, we will also have to be asking tough questions about overrepresentation–not just the number of posts per category, but per blog as well.

At the end of two weeks, the plan is to have 80-100k worth of words. Then comes the contact with authors about copyright permissions and recruiting artists. If everything stays on schedule, Open Game Table Volume 2 will be released this summer.Similar Posts:

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Encounter 26: Nature’s Lore
Encounter Level 3 (775 XP)

Overview
The PCs traverse the underpass and find themselves at the end of a long corridor facing two doors. The north door is locked, the key held by Belak. Behind it is The Outcast’s study. The other door is the entrance to the Twilight Grove, and is guarded by a squad of goblins. A door in the north wall of this room leads to the study. This encounter includes the following creatures:

• 1 glyph of warding (fire)
• 1 goblin blackblade
• 1 goblin sharpshooter
• 2 goblin warriors
• 4 twig blight saplings
• 1 twig blight thornsprayer

Area Description
Read the following to the players when the enter the study:

A layer of soil covers the floor. Rough wooden shelves, filled with a scattering of tomes and scrolls, line the north and east walls, while a rough-hewn desk stands in the center of the chamber. Fungus on the ceiling provides light. Several small bushes and pale saplings grow in the soil.

Read the following to the players if they enter the south door first:

Four goblins sort through twig and root piles on the floor. Beyond them, the collapsed southern wall of the chamber opens to a vast cavern of sickly plants, ruined walls, and hollow towers rising from a sea of briars.

The features of this area include:

• Illumination: Dim lighting
• Glyph of warding: A tome on the desk entitled Treasures of the Fire Lords (written in Draconic) is trapped. Anyone who opens the book without disabling the rune triggers the trap. The book is destroyed if this happens. The inside of the book is blank.
• Study door: The outer door to the study is locked (Thievery DC 25). Belak has the key.
• Treasure: Three successful Perception checks (DC 17) will reveal a scroll of tanglefoot bag, a scroll of delay affliction, and a druidic tome worth 150 gp. Studying the tome will provide a +1 knowledge bonus to the reader’s next Nature check.

Tactics
The twig blights attack anyone who enters the study that isn’t Belak. Any sounds of combat, or the explosion from the glyph of warding, will alert the goblins in the south room.Similar Posts:

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I slid onto an empty stool and signaled for the bartender. He nodded in my direction, and I realized he was a gnome. My curiosity got the better of me and I peered over the counter. A platform sat a couple feet above the floor and ran the length of the bar. I sat back just as the bartender headed my way, and caught a man and a woman in the corner staring at me.

“So what can I do for ya?” he asked. I promptly forgot about the pair and inquired about rooms. The price for separate rooms would take the rest of our coin. I could sell the diamond I found, but I wanted to hold onto that for later. If what I heard about the iron supply was true, I would need all the money I had for equipment. The bartender saw my look and offered beds in the common area of each floor. I agreed and paid for the four of us.

I slipped off the stool and motioned for the others to follow as I headed toward the stairs. From the corner of my eye, I noticed the man and the woman who had been watching me at the bar get up from their seats and walked toward me. I stopped and turned to face them.

“Something about you is f-familiar, child,” the man said. I bit back an angry retort when I noticed the man’s pointed ears sticking out from his helmet. An elf. To him, I probably was a child. “Do you know a sage by the name of G-Gorion.” I let my hand slip to my sword hilt. How many times would I have to do this? Was I not safe even in a place like the Friendly Arm Inn? I gave a slow nod, ready for the worst.

“We are friends of his, and were expecting him,” the woman said. She, too, had pointed ears underneath her auburn hair, though her face was softer around the edges than the man’s, suggesting a less than pure heritage.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “He died.” The words were harsh, and I heard Imoen gasp at my tone. The sound shocked my own ears, and I hardly recognized my voice.

The two looked at each other then back at me. “You must be his ward,” the woman said.

“We share your loss,” the man added.

“I am Jaheira, and this is Khalid. Gorion wished that we become your guardians, if he should ever meet an untimely end. You are obviously old enough to choose your own companions now, however.”

“We could t-travel with you until you get settled; help you find your l-lot in life.”

“It would be a fitting last service to Gorion,” Jaheira agreed. “If you have no immediate plans, we should go to Nashkel. Khalid and I…look into local concerns, and there are rumors of strange things happening at the mine. No doubt you’ve heard of the iron shortage? You would do well to help us. It effects everyone, including you. We are to meet the mayor of the town, Berrun Ghastkill.”

I recognized the names from the letter I found on Gorion, but still found it hard to believe these two meant to help instead of hurt me. Yet, if they knew my father, perhaps they knew something about why someone wanted me dead.

“As Tymora would have it, I am already going to Nashkel after I get a good night’s sleep. My companions,” I indicated Montaron and Xzar, “wish to visit there as well.”

“Indeed?” Jaheira said, eyeing the two sternly. “Interesting. In that case, I definitely think we should travel as one. You can never be too careful about the dangers of the open road. Wherever they may spring from.”

I wondered what she meant by the last, but Jaheira offered no more. I shrugged my shoulders and lead the way upstairs. A couple of the beds on the second floor were already occupied, so we headed to the third floor. As we debarked from the stairs, an old woman–another gnome–got up from the overstuffed chair she occupied and ambled toward us.

“Well met. You look like you’re up for some adventure. Could an old lady impose upon you for some help? Seems I’ve got quite the spider infestation back home. Bentley’s been kind enough to let me stay here, but there’s nothing like the comfort of sleeping in your own bed. You go to my place in Beregost, clean those spiders out, and bring back my husband’s boots, and I’ll pay you some gold. Why, I’ll even chip in something extra if you grab me one o’ my bottles of wine. Here, take these vials of antidote in case one of them critters bites ya. Now, go on. Shoo.” She waved us off and returned to her chair, smiling and nodding to herself. I stood there, dumbstruck. The old gnome was soon snoring, and we took that opportunity to slip by to the common room.

None of the beds were taken, so we each claimed one for our own. Jahiera and Khalid excused themselves to their own room. I decided to go back downstairs for a bite to eat, and left the others to their own plans. When I returned, my belly full and my eyelids heavy. I noticed Montaron and Xzar laughing over a pair of gold pantaloons, and Imoen admiring herself in a new breastplate of leather. I shook my head, and laid down on my bed. Some questions were better left unasked.

Editor’s Note: The pantaloons are one of three similar items that can be used in the final episode of the Baldur’s Gate series. If you choose to return them to the nobleman, you earn some XP, but miss out on using the pantaloons in Throne of Bhaal. I prefer playing good guys, and would normally return the pantaloons, but by having Montaron be the one that takes them, I create a convenient technicality that absolves my conscience of guilt.Similar Posts:

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Encounter 25: Ashardalon’s Shrine
Encounter Level 1 (175 XP)

Overview
A shrine to the red dragon Ashardalon is guarded by an undead spirit. Defeating the guardian will allow the PCs to discover potent magic still contained within a statue depicting the likeness of the great wyrm. A crumbling library off the shrine contains arcane and draconic lore that can aid the heroes. An underpass leads from the library to the sanctum of the Outcast. This encounter includes the following creature:

• 1 shadow spirit

Area Description
Read the following to the players when they first enter the shrine:

Dragon-carved tiles of granite comprise the walls and ceiling of this chamber, though many are crumbled and broken, creating small piles of stony debris on the floor. A huge, marble statue of a rearing dragon still stands in the curve of the western wall. A red glow lingers in the dragon’s eye sockets, suffusing the room with a reddish light that casts inky shadows. A redstone tile inset in the floor before the dragon is carved with runes that form a circle along the tile’s inner edge.

Read the following to the players when they enter the library north of the shrine:

Leaning and fallen stone bookshelves fill this chamber, though a clear path runs from one wooden door to the other in the opposite wall. Torn and burnt pages, bindings, and scrolls form piles of litter in the corners of the room.

The features of this area include:

• Illumination: Dim lighting.
• Dragon statue: An Arcana check (DC 21) reveals a strong magical aura emanating from the statue. A Nature check (DC 10) will allow a PC to recognize that the statue resembles a red dragon.
• Redstone tile: An Arcana check (DC 21) reveals a strong magical aura emanating from the statue. The runes are Draconic, and read, “Ea serpenta rau kaluva nyawisti” (let the sorcerous power illuminate my mind). Anyone who stands within the circle of the runes, and speaks the words aloud–they must be able to read Draconic–summons the magic of the dragon statue. A puff of spectral flame envelopes the creature standing on the tile, and grants them a temporary bonus to Charisma. The creature gains 1d4+1 points to their Charisma score. This bonus lasts until they take an extended rest. Once the magic is activated, it cannot be reactivated for 24 hours.
• Treasure: A Perception check (DC 18) in the main shrine reveals a loose stone in the wall behind the statue. Hidden behind the stone is 34 gp and two flasks of alchemist’s fire. The flasks’ stoppers are clay, shaped like a dragon’s head. Three separate, successful Perception checks (DC 20) in the library will uncover a ritual scroll of pyrotechnics, a scroll of alchemist’s acid, and a tome of dragon lore worth 150gp. A character fluent in Draconic can study the tome to gain a +1 knowledge bonus on a Nature check related to dragons.

Tactics
The shadow spirit hides behind the dragon statue (Perception DC 30). It attacks the first creature to come within 1 square of the redstone tile.

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This is primarily a financial decision. Buying singles in the quantities necessary to run an encounter can be hard on the wallet. And you’re not always guaranteed the existence of a mini that resembles the monster. Should WotC drop their random packs and offer some of the set types I suggested, I may return to using minis.

In the meantime, I’m opting for tokens. Fiery Dragon’s various Counter Collections are the leading candidate, but I am also considering just scanning in art from the MM. I already have an idea of how I’m going to construct the tokens, thanks to my 3 years of graphic design education, but for those DMs that struggled through Arts & Crafts at summer camp, NewbieDM’s excellent tutorial can walk you through the process.

I’m interested in hearing from you readers what you prefer: minis or tokens. Vote on the poll below and share your reasons in the comments.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Similar Posts:

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Encounter 24: Arboretum Gallery
Encounter Level 6 (1400 XP)

Overview
The PCs enter a divided gallery from which branch several arboretums. The attendants of the areas do not react kindly to intruders. This encounter includes:

• 3 bugbear gardeners
• 3 skeleton shovelers
• 4 goblin cutters
• 1 thoqqua

Area Description
Read the following to the players when they first enter the gallery:

Nodules of luminescent fungus hang from the ceiling and walls, and grow in clumps on the compost-covered floor. The light has a slight nauseating effect, but is enough to reveal bas-relief carvings dragons on portions of the walls not obscured by vegetation. A bench containing simple gardening implements stands along the west wall. A medium-sized humanoid figure is carrying a a long-handled instrument with a curved blade while it tends to a patch of wan grass.

Read the following to the players when they enter one of the areas off the main galleries:

Luminescent mists blur the edges of this chamber. Glowing fungus dot the walls and ceiling, while the caps of toadstools, mushrooms, small polyps, puffballs, and lichens blanket the floor. The humid air reeks of rot.

The features of this area include:

• Illumination: Dim lighting

Tactics
The bugbear gardeners will call out for help when they spot intruders. Only the thoqqua will not respond. It will take 1 round for the goblin cutters and the bugbear in the north gallery to respond to the alert. The third bugbear and the skeletons will join the battle in 2 rounds.

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Kiran and Simpson followed Day into the undead warren, anxious to get to Kalarel and the rift. A zombie that was hidden behind the eastern door swiped at the heroes, but missed. One of the zombies from the west broke off and went after Kiran, but he stepped back and took it down with a bowshot.

As the adventurers made quick work of the zombies, a small, winged figure appeared at the southern end of the battlefield, and several party members felt the presence of something trying to touch their minds. They resisted, and the winged figure fled down the east hall while the ghoul engaged Day. All enemies were defeated just as the homunculus reached the doors at the end of the hall.

Day tested the east hall with her padded spear, but found no trapped floor tiles. I love to see how paranoid the players/PCs get, though I do have to be careful that their precautions don’t cause a lag in the action. They reached the doors and could hear the faint sound of chanting on the other side. Day opened the doors and I described the room using the text from the encounter. As the players placed their minis, several of them observed that the entrance on the map was actually blocked off from the main cathedral by some closed doors and walls.

Doh!

Even though I’ve read through the encounter several times before this, and noted the entryway on the map, I still forgot to take it into account. I struck from the record all the details but the sounds of three distinct voices chanting unholy rites.

The group moved through the rubble of the southwest walls until they can see two figures: the closest stood next to a column of glowing blue crystal and hefted a big axe; the other stood before a statue of a demon, blood flowing from the stone to a pit in the middle of the room. Both had their back to the party.

While Day signaled everyone to gather for a plan of attack, Darla decided to be a bit of an instigator and sent Gullyven forward close enough to shoot off a bolt of lightning at the nearest cultist. The gnome made his Stealth check, but his shot missed. The surprise round over, everyone rolled for initiative.

I had fun describing how the vampire minions ran up the walls as they closed with the PCs. And I was able to keep the berzerkers in play a little longer with the underpriest’s healing power. However, the dark creeper never really made an impact due to the party’s positioning, and they ended up capturing the Shadowfell denizen. The creeper didn’t give up much information, even in the face of Gullyven’s potent intimidation.

The PCs decided to tie up the creeper, knock it unconscious, and stow it in the back of the cathedral with the intention of taking it back to Winterhaven for justice once they finished with Kalarel and the rift. They moved to the pit and I described the four mechanisms at each corner that raised and lowered the chains. This was a change I made from the module, as it didn’t make sense to me that Kalarel would slide down the chains and climb up them whenever he wanted to move about the dungeon. So, the chains attached to the corners of a platform that acted as an elevator.

As the players descend, I had the decrepit skeletons fire their arrows. The party stayed in the central pool of blood, wagons circled. Gullyven was intent upon shooting Kalarel where he stood by the altar, at least until the skeletal sentinels advanced. Then the gnome sorcerer investigated the magic circle, hoping to disable it like he did in the graveyard, but learned that it would require the interruption of the whole ritual that opens the rift.

Meanwhile, Ansis used his Wall of Light power for the first time. Between the wall and Simpson’s bard song, the party had some decent defense bonuses and was gaining temp hit points at the start of every turn. I did get to fire off the wight’s horrific visage, pushing a couple of them out of the wall for a turn, but for the most part they hunkered down and blasted away.

When the first sentinel fell, Day made a charge for Kalarel. The scion of Orcus was knocked prone, but teleported to the magic circle. With the way clear, Gullyven headed for the altar and deciphered what is needed to counter the ritual: the five statues of Bahamut needed to be placed in a particular pattern on the altar, and the words of the ritual spoken in a different order.

I really liked that the updated version of Keep on the Shadowfell included a skill challenge to close the rift to the encounter. However, as has been the case so far in my experience with published WotC modules, examples of what a successful check equates to are rarely included. So I came up with the statues. Gullyven proceeded to race to his companions, grab their statues, and return to the altar.

Unfortunately, Gullyven failed the third, fourth, and fifth checks of the challenge. I was disappointed–I had really been rooting for the PCs to succeed in the challenge. So, when I made one last glance over the write-up for the skill challenge, and discovered that each failure resulted in a necrotic attack by the altar, I decided to roll back the challenge to the first failure. I rolled the attack and hit. I then asked Darla if she wanted to continue in light of the consequences. She did, and Gullyven succeeded on his next attempt.

Then he failed again. And again. I went totally soft on the players this point and asked if anyone wanted to aid Gullyven. The three other Arcane/Divine PCs pitched in and it was enough. This sequence repeated itself two more times before they finally succeeded in the challenge. Everyone was envisioning this shouting going on between the four as they fought:

Gullyven: “That didn’t work. What do I do next, guys?”

Everybody else: “Put the statue there. No, over there! And that one goes there.”

Gullyven: “I don’t know how to say this last word.”

Everybody else: “How do you spell it?”

It elicited some good chuckles.

With the ritual countered, the undead unanimated, and the rift sealed. I hadn’t made good use of The Thing in the Portal up to this point, only attacking Ansis once with it. I forgot that the upgraded version had a much greater range on its sliding attack than the original, and for some reason had it stuck in my head that it only attacked once Kalarel was in the magic circle.

By this time, the heroes had knocked some 40-60 hit points off Kalarel, he was the only enemy left standing, and we were at least an hour over our designated end time. The outcome of the encounter a foregone conclusion, I asked the players if they minded calling it a victory and stopping for the night. They agreed.

Our next session will be an interlude from this campaign. DeeAnn is going to DM a Paragon-level one-shot. I’m looking forward to playing. Following that, we’ll return to wrap up some loose story-ends. Then I plan to present the group with several hooks that will lead them to Thunderspire.Similar Posts:

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