Lost Crown of Neverwinter – Session 3

Ten days have passed since the PC’s fought alongside the Heir and defeated the White Plaguechanged Dragon. The characters have all been keeping themselves very busy. We started off with a quick trip around the table to see what everyone had been up to for the past ten days. At the same time I also asked about the badges they had received from the heir at the end of the last session and what they had done with them.

There was a surprisingly interesting split in what the party and they had done with the badges. First off no one had sold them, which was my first big surprise. Second two of the players were proudly wearing them. One of those two players went so far as to say that he had been actively supporting the Heir and trying to recruit people to his cause for the past 10 days. Another couple of players said that they were wearing them as well. However they were being discreet about them. One had his on the inside of his clock so he could flash it if he thought it would be helpful. The other one kept her badge tucked under the lapels of her cloak. The last of the group had tossed them in their backpacks and basically forgot about them.

There was a lot interesting discussion on the forums before the game about making the encounter more cinematic and to try and give the fight a real bar room brawl. There were several great suggestions for the encounter including one person directing us to the At Will Blog for a great selection of barroom fights encounter and at will powers.  http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/2010/10/dungeons-flagons-essentials-barroom-blitz/ I really liked this idea and grabbed the information for the encounter.

The session starts with the PC hanging out at a local tavern. Due to rising tensions in city the owner is enforcing a strict no weapons policy and now collects them at the door and stores them in a lock box under the bar table. This fact had several of the players very worried and why shouldn’t they be worried there hasn’t been a single non-combat encounter in the history of Encounters. Ok it could be argued that the PC’s could have tried to talk their way out of a number of encounters over the past year. It isn’t something that I’ve seen done at our store, and we have an average of 3 to 4 table’s right from the very beginning.

I went around the table one player at a time and allowed them each the chance to move through the tavern and interact with the various NPC’s. Most of the pcs were very interested in the group of young
blades. A couple even joined the table and flashed the Heir badges to win the groups respect. Mean while our groups Dead Rat Deserter skittered in rat form about the bar listening in to conversation. Another PC walked up to the Water Elemental Genasi and rudely asked what the hell she was? The later made for an interesting bit of role-play.

To keep the role-playing portion of the evening moving smoothly I made four passes around the table. It gave everyone enough time to do something. To learn a little from the NPC’s while at the same time not dragging it out for too long and boring them. During each pass of the table the Dwarven PC did nothing beyond getting another drink.

Right before I had the general arrive I went around the table and asked everyone how drunk they were on a scale of 1 to 5. Several players pushed for zero saying that they weren’t drinking. In turn I pointed out that the barkeeper would have tossed them if they hadn’t been drinking at least a little. After all he is running a business and selling drinks is how he makes money. So they happily accepted a rating of 1. The dwarf who had done nothing but drink each and every time I came around to him also claimed to only be a 1. His response gave the whole table a good laugh. We settled the issue by having him make a saving throw, success meant he was a 3 and failure meant he would be a 4. His dwarven constitution to the rescue and he succeed.

The general’s arrival silenced the bar and made the Harrag, the tavern owner, even more uncomfortable. His place was packed with people who supported the Heir and here was the Lord’s General. The general called out for the PC’s they tried to play sly to learn more about what was going on before giving themselves over to the General. This plan would have worked out much better had they all been on the same page. One of the characters stood up and said “Yep, that’s us!” and walked over to the general. Within seconds the place exploded tankards flew thru the air at PCs and the general.

I handed around a print out of the various option presented on the At-Will website http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/2010/10/dungeons-flagons-essentials-barroom-blitz/ and the players got down to business. One of the options available was lighting up spill alcohol as a fire attack, to represent this potential option anytime a PC or NPC attacked with a bottle I marked the square they attack to keep track of the spills.

The Halfling thief went straight for the lockbox that contained the group’s weapon. While the group’s main fighters went straight for the door and fully intended to leave. It wasn’t until he was called back by the general to help that he stopped and got involved. The rest of the group got down to business; bottles were thrown or smashed over opponents, and the bladesinger made do with a handle off a broom in place of her trusted sword. All in all it was going well for the group.

When it was the drunken brawlers turn they did little slow the PCs down. Then roughly half of them collapsed due to their own drunkenness. After that the group worked with the General and cleaned house. Fondle the groups fighter started tossing them out of the bar. While the Halfling lit up a group of them who were standing in pools of alcohol and broken bottles. Harrogate and the General both flipped over the sudden flames.

Fire was more than enough to take out take the spirits out of the brawlers.  One of them ran from the bar trailing smoke behind him and dove off the pier.  Others had to be put out by the PC’s and a couple of the General’s Bodyguards.

The Drow hunter didn't have the best run of luck. His lack of ranged weapons and poor dice rolling left him bloody, in a pool of alcohol, and beside a fireplace. It wasn't a good position for him. A drunken brawler grabbed a flaming log and set him on fire. Then he tried to make good his escape through window only to be cut off by PCs.  They were kind enough to leave him a path, but only if he wanted to risk four opportunity attacks.  In the end they beat him down hard and I don’t think these drunks will be causing any problems soon.