Tuesday, May 4, 2010

No Holds Bard

Three weeks ago…

Hawkmoon is searching idly for more diamonds when he hears a noise nearby…

“Are you alone?”

Looking around, Hawkmoon can see no one but knows Estaban’s tricks well enough to recognise this as being one of his.
Durin’s in sight but too far away to hear anything.

“What do you want Estaban?”

“I need to hear your report. I need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your travelling companions. Their favoured spells and tactics. Their vulnerabilities and defensive shortcomings. Everything I need to know to defeat them when the time comes!”

Hawkmoon sighs and, while making sure he’s out of sight, tells Estaban everything he wants to hear.

“Very well - though I don't approve of your underhand tactics to influence the others. Am I not insurance enough?
Overall the Party are a disparate bunch. Different aims and goals. They don't act together, but somehow manage to salvage most situations. Usually through the use of powerful magics.

Bodush should probably be your first target. His firepower is unprecedented, but catch him early on and he would be an easy target.
After a few seconds, though, beware. He will fly, become invisible and also likely create a number of fake images to confuse your archers.
There's even a chance that he’ll pre-empt an attack and protect himself in advance.

The Werebear is nothing special in his human guise, but beware him once he changes. He becomes extremely strong. I would suggest avoiding melee with him if you can.

Next you may wish to focus on Thesis: the lizard-man. He and the Dwarf are both good close combatants, but the lizard has the slight edge. Being a barbarian, Durin's tactics are often baffling but once stuck in a combat he will quickly become angry and become a whirling dervish of axe! Be prepared for healing against these two. Split them up; Divide and conquer.

The pedantic Cleric: Eolar is more an annoyance than anything. He’s self serving and almost as shambolic in combat as the Dwarf. He will probably be called on to heal the others, but instead will try to damage you himself! He may call down the fury of his God, but catch him in melee and he will drop quickly.

Mara'ch, the new Kobold, is a tricky one. Keep your fighters away from him. He can't fight himself but is somehow able to sap the strength of others.
If you are looking for an easy kill, then shoot him. Be quick, though, as he will likely disappear like Bodush.

Use the element of surprise to your full advantage. Act quickly decisively. Concentrate your attacks against one target at a time.

I have no loyalty to these adventurers - but make no mistake. Turn on me as you would turn on them and I swear I will return from the very bowels of Hell to take my revenge upon you...”

There’s silence for a moment before Estaban speaks again.

“Good work Hawkmoon. You’ve confirmed my thoughts and given me everything I needed to know. When you arrive back here, do nothing until Bodush and Eolar have handed over the diamonds. No doubt my youngest son will try to speak up for his friends. As soon as he starts talking, shoot Bodush in the back.
As for me turning on you… save your oaths. A deal is a deal."

6 comments:

Insanodag said...

Scott's character better have a lot of hit points in the next game.

Charlie Stilton said...

Fair's fair.
Want me to roll up two new characters?!

RoboGeek said...

Boy, did you play us.

Shameful really. Thesis needed to have defended Bodush against that backstabbing Elf. It might all have been different.

I wish we could play it again!

Hedzor said...

Frankly, the way I saw it, all the Party had to do was defend each other and play smart.
The opposition were prepared and well organised but ultimately pretty crap.
After two years of playing, I shouldn't have been surprised but I was a little disappointed.

TieDye said...

Come off it, Kirk - remember how we all got surrounded on Ape Island by rock-throwing apes, and the only thing that saved us was the archers? This last encounter was essentially a more deadly version of that - in addition to us being surrounded by lots of simple ranged attackers, the enemy also had spellcasters, close-up fighters, and our own rapid-fire archers! Honestly, are you really all that surprised?

I don't mind terribly when our whole party is slaughtered (as opposed to just me learning the hard way about planning ahead), but don't be shocked that we didn't succeed against a death-trap designed against all of our weaknesses.

Hedzor said...

'Come off it'?

The 'Rock-throwing apes', like most of the 'journey' encounters was meant to give you a clue about what was to come and give you an opportunity to plan for it.

Rather than a 'Death-trap designed against all of our weaknesses', I was hoping the Party would finally realise that cooperation was needed to ensure survival.

I say 'ensure' but all I can really guarantee is that the Party would have survived longer...