Drakenwelt Replay II - Session 2 - Giant tactics!

It's been a couple of days, so let's talk about the game and do some roleplaying. This quest has a time limit, the limit is a week, as I am keeping track of time this should not be a problem. It's also not a videogame so even if they fail the quest, it doesn't mean they have to do it again... they'll just have to live with the consequences of that.

To begin, the party must travel from Molinos to Descanso. I use the same rules for travel as I did in the previous version, so first, let me show you an updated version of that same map.

This time the party will travel using horses, so the turn time is lowered to 2 hours of travel per hex movement. If there are no random encounters, they should be able to reach Descanso in 12 hours. With that said, there is an encounter which I am going to force for the sake of the story. If a random encounter does occur (which is unlikely, as traveling in the road is only 1 in 6 chance for an encounter) the forced encounter will not occur.

I will assume they leave at dawn. Let's check the weather. Oh wow, it is raining and it's windy. That's a storm, although not a very powerful one. As for mechanical effects... there are none. I could make it so it slows down movement or something like that, but I don't want that. I roll for the weather just to have an image of how the scene looks. Perhaps the party will wait for the rain to stop. Let's say they wait a turn (2 hours). I'll ask the oracle.

Q: Is it still raining? (⅔)
A: Yes.
Q: Does the party wait another 2 hours? (½)
A: No.

So they are going to leave while it rains. I can imagine Felnini would say:

Felnini: "We have no time to waste, let's get going!"

Or something like that. Demfand and Samirin would agree. The only person that would lean on the side of caution would be Lialia. Perhaps I should have asked if they wanted to leave in the first place and made it more likely... Heh... I don't really feel like taking that back, so it is what it is.

First Turn: Nothing happens (4). 2 hours of travel.
Second Turn: Nothing happens (5). 4 hours of travel.
Third Turn: Nothing happens (3). 6 hours of travel.

Here is where the encounter should happen, so let me roll to see if it still rains.

Q: Is it still raining? (½)
A: Yes.

Where is this, the UK? It's been raining for 8 hours.

The rain did not show signs of stopping, and neither did the party, and yet, they found themselves stopping at the sensation of the ground vibrating under their horses.

Samirin: "What is that?"
Lialia: "It is coming from the forest..."

A flash of light split the skies, following the thunder was the breaking of trees, and two creatures emerged from the trees; running towards the party, two humanoids, a human and an imp. One of them was carrying a large horn under his arm.

Gertosel: "Get away... there is..."
Demdem: "There's... a giant..."

Demdem said, barely able to catch his breath. And not a second later it could be seen, larger than the trees, a masculine humanoid figure with long arms and a muscular body.

Giant: "Give it back!"

As the giant appears, he's going to kick the ground, sending a piece of a tree flying, as the dirt and pieces of wood hit the ground the horses panic. The party is forced to dismount or run into some tree branch. Let's roll initiative.

6	5-4	3-2	1
Demfand Samirin	Felnini	Mila Giant	Lialia Demdem Gertosel

I changed how initiative works. Now it is a generic system that groups the characters and anyone in that group can do their action in any order. If the enemy or characters act first it is determined by circumstance, in this circumstance, I'd say enemies have priority.

This is a 7 member group. They should totally be able to defeat this Level 4 Giant Boss. Right? Also... who the fuck is Mila?

It's Demfand's turn.

Demfand: "Sam, let's take this thing on..."
Samirin: "Are you sure we shouldn't just run...?"

Once he finishes his incantation (8) an invisible chain constricts the body of the Giant and he struggles to move. Samirin sighs and runs towards the creature, hacking at its leg (7 damage); since it is immobile, she doesn't need to roll to hit. It is followed by an arrow shot by Felnini (10 damage.)

It's the Giant's turn... but he can't move. I am going to use one of his two boss points to allow him to set himself free. Then he will attack everyone who is close to him by swinging a tree at them. Gertosel and Samirin need to make a dexterity save, they both made it (7) and (9), but I am going to use the second boss point to force a hit. They are both sent flying by the hit, dealing 10 damage to both of them.

It is Mila's turn. Who is that again?

After the giant swung the tree at the vanguard, the shine of a blade fell upon him. From a tree nearby, and with a jump higher than the giant himself, a girl with grey skin and red tattoos wielding a magic sword attacked.

Let's roll for attack, lower rolls in this system are good. In this case, Mila needs to roll three six-sided dice, and will succeed on a result below 13, which is the Light Sword+2's hit value. She rolls 6, it hits. Her one handed damage is 1D+4 and the weapon's light damage is 1D+2. She has damage advantage since she's using the one handed sword with two hands. 8 slashing damage + 5 light damage.

A wound appeared in the giant's face, a light that seemed to burn him, he covered his face as he stepped backwards releasing a painful shout. Mila landed on the ground near Gertosel and Samirin.

Mila: "It is our turn to engage in combat."

She says, looking at Gertosel. There is no particular expression on her face; it is a matter of fact that it must be done.

Gertosel: "Y-Yeah, let's fight this thing."
Demdem: "Are you sure we shouldn't just run...?"
Gertosel: "Mila, hold this."

He says, as he gives her the horn. He was recently hit so he's just standing up and recovering. But he will go ahead and try to hit the giant using his great ax. The great-ax has a hit of 12, he rolled a 9, so it hits. The axe cuts through the leg leaving a huge bleeding gap (13 damage.)

Demdem prepared himself to cast a spell, staff in hand, but was interrupted by the sound of a powerful incantation. The wind gathered near Lialia, a storm surrounding a magic circle beneath her foot. She had her staff in one hand but her eyes were set on a book she was holding with the other.

Lialia: "By our oath, I summon you... Grizeia."

Lialia casts Dimension Summon (13). I just want to note, the characters all have randomized spells from a list, I didn't choose to give her such a powerful thing.

The rain stopped mid air... and in front of Lialia appeared a figure from out of nowhere. Her body was translucent, as if she wasn't really there, a woman wearing a robe of silver and green; her light green hair adorned with flowers and golden chains. With eyes closed she raised her hand, and the water in the air flowed to a single point, then she pointed with a gentle motion in the direction of the giant, and the water was shot faster than a bullet.

The spear made of water hits the shoulder of the giant leaving a large hole (12 damage.) This may seem like very light damage for such a verbose description, but this spell is very good, she gets to roll damage every turn without needing to re-cast. So if she does it 3 consecutive turns, with an average of 12 damage, she'll deal 34 damage only having to cast once.

Demdem is too in shock, I'll skip his turn (lol). Round is over, it goes back to Samirin, who just got up from that one hit she took. She only has 3 hit points left, so I imagine she would walk a bit back and just shoot the giant with her bow... but she's in too much pain and the arrow misses the large target entirely (12).

Demfand walks forward, points his wand at the giant and... attempts to cast Wind Burst. But he loses concentration and the spell fails (12).

Felnini: "What are you doing? Get out of the way!"

As the giant approaches Demfand, Felnini shoots an arrow (9), it lands directly on the giant's eye (12 damage). The creature, in pain, decides to run away back into the forest.

Lialia: "Thank you for your help."

Lialia thanked the summoned woman, who nodded and disappeared.

Q: Is it still raining? (½)
A: No.

As the woman disappears the weather clears, some light crosses through the clouds, the puddles of water in the mud reflecting the cloudy sky.

Let me give you my thoughts. Level 4 enemies are too low level for a group this large, especially a singular enemy. I'll keep trying different levels until I figure it out. The large health boost really made enemies more powerful, and of course, the boss points are a good addition as they allow boss monsters to not be complete pushovers.

With my opinion out of the way, this roleplay section is important, and will determine the future of the replay.

Samirin: "What was that about?"
Lialia: "I am intrigued, who are you three?"
Demdem: "Ah... we are..."
Gertosel: Charisma — Success (5) "Adventurers, just like you!"

Demfand: "Damn... the horses ran away... how long is the way to Descanso on foot?"
Samirin: "Forget about the horses! My make-up is ruined... and I'm covered in mud... weeh~"
Demfand: "Hey... stop using my robe to clean yourself..."
Demdem: Wisdom — Failure (I can't hear what those two are talking about...)

Felnini walked up to Demfand and pointed at him with a smug look on her face.

Felnini: "Shouldn't you be saying something?"
Demfand: "Huh?" ... ... "Uh... g-good job?"
Felnini: "Grr... you should say thanks! If it wasn't for me you'd be that giant's dinner!"
Demfand: (Do giants even eat people?) "I see. Thank you."

Demfand raised his hand and pat Felnini's head.

Demfand: "There, there...."
Felnini: "I'm not your dog, human!"

Felnini's rage turned her face red. She quickly grabbed Demfand's arm and bit his hand.

Demfand: "Ugh...! Get off me!"

Demfand started hitting Felnini on the head with the end of his staff but he couldn't make her lessen her grip on his arm.

Samirin: "It's not fair, I want to be pet too!"

Samirin clinged to Demfand's leg.

Demfand: "What are you, a dog?"
Demfand: "Hey! Don't use my pants to clean yourself either!"
Felnini: "Grrrr...."
Demfand: "Stop, you little shit... you are going to chew my finger off!"
Samirin: "First we search for the ring, and then we search for your finger, gahahaha!"
Demdem: Wisdom — Success (10) (They are searching for a ring?)

Gertosel: "We were tasked with recovering this horn from that giant."

Gertosel pointed to the horn Mila was holding.

Lialia: "Eh... I thought you were a dark elf... but you are a human..."
MIla: "I am a—"
Demdem: "She's a dark elf! She's been cursed to have that form... it is very unfortunate."
Gertosel: "Yes, we are looking for a cure..."

Although Lialia has never seen a curse like that, the figure in front of her was nothing she had seen before, so it was possible to believe she truly had been cursed. As this exchange is happening, Mila looks incredibly confused.

Lialia: "Is the horn related to the curse?"
Gertosel: "Oh, not at all, we were gathering funds for travel, we are on our way back to Molinos."
Lialia: "I see, I hope your friend can be freed from her curse..."
Felnini: "Sis, we need to get going, it's a long way to Descanso on foot."

Saying their goodbyes both parties go separate ways... or so it seems. In reality Gertosel, Demdem and Mila wait for a couple of hours in the same spot and start trailing them.

Demdem: "It doesn't matter where we sell the horn."
Gertosel: "I thought you said the giant wasn't there..."
Mila: "He wasn't there when we arrived. When the leader shouted 'wow, this is a magical horn!' was when he decided to appear."
Gertosel: (You should have warned me that he was nearby...) "So why are we going to Descanso instead of Molinos?"
Demdem: "That woman said something about a ring, where there are adventurers there must be treasure, I reasoned."
Gertosel: "Heh, what a genius!"

For a while the Crimson Strike Band had been searching for adventure and treasure. The first idea they had was to sell the magic sword, but after finding out how good Mila was in combat, they decided to make her join the band instead. In return, they were also searching for information about her and a person she was looking for.

Okay, let's finish the travel turns. 8 hours have gone by since travel began. So let's continue from there:

Fourth Turn: Nothing happens (3). 12 hours of travel.
Fifth Turn: Nothing happens (5). 16 hours of travel.

For the Sixth and Seventh turn the party must rest or they will take one exhaustion. Recovering one exhaustion takes a whole day resting, so instead I am going to have them camp near the road.

I'll also roll to see what happens to the other party. Nothing (4) (3), they also follow them around. I'll have them sleep too, I haven't done stacking up but I'll do it after they reach Descanso and head for the ruins.

Lialia was holding a lantern as it was night, they had set up a place to rest near some rocks, where the water from the rain had been drained, and the place was mostly dry. It had been decided that Demfand and Lialia would be the ones on the lookout. The party ate food and they were going to bed.

Felnini: "If you are planning to do something pervy I will kill you!"
Demfand: "Why would I do that?"
Samirin: "You can do something pervy with me~"
Demfand: "Why would I do that?"
Lialia: "Hehe~ you two are so friendly with each other..."
Felnini: "You are right... It makes me wonder... what are you two?"

They both replied at the same time:

Samirin: "Lovers!"
Demfand: "Friends..."

Samirin: "You break my heart... you know?"
Demfand: "You don't have one of those."
Samirin: "Right, right... I'm going to bed now, wake me up when it's time to switch places."
Felnini: "I'll do the same, good night sis... and good night perv."
Demfand: "You've been calling me that without reason..."
Lialia: "All men have the hearts of perverts... right?"
Demfand: (Has she been learning those things from her older sister?)

With no more comments the party goes to rest.

Unfortunately... their sleep is interrupted by a random encounter (1).

... But that's the end of this session! That was long, they weren't able to reach Descanso... and now they are not going to be able to sleep properly. Things are not looking good for the party. There were a couple of things that could have gone differently, not only in combat but afterwards...

Had Demdem heard about their destination, they would have gone with the party under the excuse of returning the horn. Had he not heard about the ring, that would have been the end of it. Had Gertosel failed his charisma check, they probably would have had to flee and give up on the horn. But that's all the things that didn't happen... and now this unexpected encounter in the night.

By the way, the other party is sleeping without an issue. Mila doesn't even need a bedroll to sleep, she sleeps sitting. That's it, see you next session!