They Met At a Tavern 2: Another Deathbringer One-Shot

Howdy folks. Time for another Meetup One-shot session at the brewery. Since I'd had a successful run with Deathbringer last time, I wanted to play with the game a bit more. The night's miscreant PCs:

• Rosey the Plague Doctor
• Ferrick the Plague Doctor
• Timber the Deathbringer
• Young Gerrin the Scoundrel

Plenty of local healthcare providers

Note: No Witch Hunters, again. So yes, there will be undead... But first, the Shorter Half asked, "Aren't we going to roll for hats?" Of course we are.

I recently finished "The Temple of Dynss" and wanted to give it a playtest. The scenario is more appropriate for 2nd to 3rd level PCs, so I softened the lizardfolk guards, otherwise things were run by the book. 

The party got hired as expendables to go check out the goings-on at the abandoned temple, since the local lizardfolk tribe had become more belligerent lately. Having few coins to rub together, and the promise of heaps of jade sent them on their way.

Random encounter en route - a lizardfolk hunting party. Great... Reaction roll: 11. "Hi, would you like a rabbit? Look out for snakes!" The party soon arrived at the temple and cooked the rabbit for lunch.

Rosey reconnoitered the perimeter of the temple, with Gerrin scrambling up the ruined side to check out the platform. He spotted the statue and an undead gecko. With a little planning, Timber made a racket, and lured it away into the woods while the remainder of the party checked out the statue, which was surrounded by obvious scorch marks. So of course Ferrick went up and poked it. No boom. He got away with some pocket change left on the alter.

The party entered the temple proper, inspecting the first room. They took a close look at the stele there, then poked their heads into the large central temple room. Here, they were spotted by a pair of guards, who rushed them. Ferric missed his throw with a potion (an ongoing issue), but Gerrin and Rosey took out one, and Timber critted the second. The party checked pockets, then broke down a rusted door to find a small idol.

By now, it was time for another wandering monster, so I attacked them with the undead gecko because that was funny. They dispatched it without too many wounds. 

Down they go - finding a broad set of stairs to a lower level, the party paused to listen at the top, hearing lizardfolk language. Gerrin and Ferric crept down and spotted the shaman and his two guards. Ferric again missed his thrown potion, although Gerrin was able to shank one. The shaman fled deeper into the level, with Gerrin hot on his tail. The rest of the party charged down the stairs to take on the two guards who were fighting a rearguard action. 

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Ferric again threw wide, although Rosey pinged one guard with an acid potion. I think there was another crit in there somewhere, as the party took down the two guards in a few rounds. In the meantime, Gerrin and the shaman were having it out. Gerrin was slightly disadvantaged by the shaman's Smoking Ruin spell. He also shook off the effects of the shaman's death whistle. Unfortunately, by now, the shaman was able to reanimate an undead warrior, and Gerrin found himself injured and paralyzed by the warrior. Fortunately, the rest of the party arrived at that time. Ferrick runs out of things to throw and finally crits with his cleaver. The ENTIRE PARTY saves vs the death whistle. What the hell. 

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The shaman gets fed up with his magic failing and brains poor Ferrick with his staff, although I did allow Ferrick one final heroic attack. At this point, the shaman gets fed up with the whole affair and flees. 

The party was able to dispatch the reanimated guard and recover some more goodies. 

Thanks to Nathan (Ferrick), who had a little toy dragon in his dice bag that played the role of the undead gecko admirably. 

DM Notes:

Another good test with Deathbringer. Everyone got into their characters, and played them well. Poor Ferrick and his shit throws... The party had 5? crits over the session. The +1d12 damage for critical hits via the rules can make for some significant hits, as seen with one-shotting at least one baddie. One player used a Deathbringer die, as well to boost either damage or a save. The Scoundrel took good advantage of their advantage rolls for sneaking, etc. Again, it's a good little system for these types of games. The players were able to work up their characters quickly and get into the swing of things. 

Anyway, the scenario ran well. The only elements I softened were the HD and damage for the guards, otherwise I ran as written. One PC death and a couple of bad injuries (offset by a bit of healing) wasn't too bad of an outcome. I was apparently using my Player-Hating dice that night, as the wandering encounters kept coming, and the baddies were able to win initiative, as well as get several good hits in. 

The adventure is pretty much hack and slash, depending on how it's approached. The positive reaction roll of the wandering lizardfolk was amusing, at least. Although it fit with the scenario background of the lizardfolk being somewhat insular and having limited interactions with respect to the humans in the area. I'll make a few play-based tweaks to the adventure and keep it in the folder for future shenanigans.

I'll probably move to another lite system for the next pickup game, so exploring options.

Have the Usual Miscreants (tm) on deck for tonight, so we'll see where they end up exploring and interacting with the world.