Unlikely Heroes: Kobold Katastrophe

Game Date: 11/12/2011
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Adrilar (Greg): Elf Sorcerer
Davor (Ted): Half-Orc Sorcerer
Glynnyn (Tamara): Elf Druid
Keyanna (Chere): Half-Elf Dragonblood Sorcerer
Nishallivexiania "Vex" Corman (Matt): Half-Elf Monk
Ranell (Michael): Halfling Barbarian

The Session:
Last session left off with us checking out a lumber camp.  When we got there, we were ambushed by a bunch of kobolds.  Adrilar went down, others were wounded, and things looked grim.  We ended the session on that cliffhanger.

So, after dreading this potential TPK for over a month, we started right where we left off.  We faced a large number of enemies, mostly kobolds and kobold zombies.  Ranell briefly considered shooting Vex in the leg and fleeing into the forest.

Adrilar was the first to go.  He got swarmed by kobold zombies, who continued to attack him after he went down.  They didn't leave him alone until they'd eaten his brain.  I'd make a joke about how it must have been a small meal, but I'll refrain out of respect for the dead.

(But I'm still thinking it.)

When the battle first began, Davor had been poking around in a small, two-room shack.  He heard some noises from the shack's other room, so he blocked the door by pushing a desk in front of it.  He then left the shack, and investigated a large shed.  In the shed he encountered a giant beetle, which very quickly killed him.

I think this picture speaks for itself.

Once we killed all the outdoor enemies, we had a brief respite.  We looted Adrilar's healing items and used them to get ourselves back up to full.  The survivors - Glyynyn, Keyanna, Vex, and Ranell - started looking for Davor.  None of us had seen him run into the shed, so we didn't even know he was dead yet.  Ranell and Vex went into the small shack, pushed the desk aside, and fought a few more kobolds and a swarm of bugs.  We'd had bad luck with swarms before, so after a couple of rounds we sealed the room again and went back outside.

Once outside, the giant beetle came scuttling out of the shed.  It was very hard to hit and did copious amounts of damage, but we stood our ground (for some reason).  Keyanna tried to cast Sleep on it, and rolled a crit on her attack roll.  Unfortunately, it turns out there is no attack roll for Sleep in Pathfinder, and Sleep only affects creatures of lower level than the beetle anyway.

The beetle knocked Ranell out and buried him in the ground.  Keyanna spent her next turn pulling Ranell out of the ground so he wouldn't suffocate. Vex was messily killed by the massive insect.  It was Glynnyn who finally delivered the killing blow against the beetle.

The final survivors were Glynnyn, Keyanna, Ranell, and of course Durp (because his player was absent, Durp stayed on the sidelines).  They found a cart and loaded it up with the bodies of their friends.  They decided to head back to town, and ended the session there.

Afterthoughts:
In an earlier blog I compared the pros and cons of Pathfinder and D&D 4e.  One of the bigger issues was combat length.  Part of the reason we switched to Pathfinder was that we were tired of 4e's incredibly long encounters.  Well, this entire session was a single encounter.  To be fair, we started a little late and ended a little early, but it was still a pretty long battle for Pathfinder.  I wonder how it would have played out in 4e.

Reminders:
Our party has just changed so drastically, and some of the players have been getting a little annoyed with Pathfinder.  We've decided to switch back to D&D 4e next session.  We're going to continue with the same storyline, and the surviving party members will be converting their characters to 4e versions.  I rolled my race and class randomly, and I will be playing a Human Ardent.

Also:
For those party members still alive to enjoy it, we now have blueprints for our tower.  It's probably going to cost a good deal more than we have right now, but it's a long-term project.  Pix below: