SESSION 35A: BIRDS OF A BLACK FEATHER

January 18th, 2009
The 18th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Once they had reached a position of relative safety (i.e., far away from the chaos temple), Ranthir magically attuned his vision. Looking over the items they had looted from the cultists, he saw several arcane auras. These items, combined with the various coins and gems, constituted a small fortune.

“They were well equipped,” Tor said.

One of the items, in particular, held particular interest for the fighter: Gavele’s preternatural speed was explained by the enchanted boots she wore. Tor, who had struggled to keep up with the long, powerful strides of Agnarr’s barbarian-bred legs, claimed both these and a shirt of finely crafted and mage-touched chain.

Once they had emerged from the sewers, they sold the unclaimed items in various shops across Midtown and the North Market. Then they headed to the Cathedral and received divine healing, mystically purging their poison-wracked bodies. They also took the opportunity to stock up on a variety of portable curatives so that they would be able to deal with poison on site in the future. (“This probably won’t be the last time we’ll be dealing with the Brotherhood of Venom.”)

They had completed these chores as a matter of urgency and necessity, but now that the dinner hour was approaching, they realized they were still variously caked with sewer sludge, crusted blood, and other various foulnesses. And so they headed toward the bathhouse on Tavern Row.

BIRDS OF A BLACK FEATHER

When they arrived at the Row Bathhouse, however, they found a small crowd gathered around its gaping door. A carpet of black feathers covered a broad swath of the street directly in front of the building.

Ranthir turned to Elestra. “What type of feathers are they? Raven or crow?”

“I don’t know, I’m an urban druid.”

But Ranthir was thinking about what Elestra had told them of her experiences at Nadar’s Pub: Sir Kabel had dismissed the possibility that she had been a messenger from the Killravens explicitly because she had been too small to be a raven.

They approached one of the men gathered around the scene. “What happened?”

“I hardly know. I was just walking down the street when a huge flock of birds flew into the bathhouse. Several people ran out, most of them screaming their fool heads off. And then the bird flew back out again.”

“What type of birds were they?”

“I don’t know. They were just black birds.”

“Wait,” Ranthir said. “Were they crows, ravens, or blackbirds?”

Dominic sighed. “I don’t think he knows.”

With a shrug, Tor and Tee headed into the bathhouse. They found Derra, the proprietress of the bathhouse, being questioned by a watchman. Tee took the opportunity to sneak through the far door and into the baths themselves.

She found the pools tainted with blood – crimson tendrils eddying between black feathers. She poked around for a bit, but didn’t find anything notable.

As she came back into the front office, the watchman spotted her and kicked them out onto the street. As they emerged from the door, they spotted a raven watching them from the roof on the opposite side of the Row. Seeing that it had been noticed, the raven took off and began to fly away to the south.

Reacting instantly, Elestra called upon the Spirit of the City and transformed into a hawk. She winged her way quickly after the errant raven. The crafty creature managed to dodge her first attempt to snag it, but on her second pass she was able to clasp it in her talons. She winged her way back towards the others—

And then flew past them on her way to the Ghostly Minstrel.

“Where’s she going?”

Tee was exasperated. “She’s like a magpie! But instead of shiny things, it’s bad guys.”

TELLITH’S TROUBLES

Elestra flew in through the window of her room. The others followed on foot.

But when they opened the front door of the Ghostly Minstrel, they found Tellith being confronted by a large ogre and three thugs.

“—and don’t think your delver friends will help you,” the ogre growled.

“Delver friends like us?” Tee stabbed him in the back.

With a roar of pain, the ogre whirled around and lowered his hands. From the tips of his fingers a wave of fire poured forth, bursting through the front doors of the Minstrel.

But Tee, reacting in the flicker of an eye, had flattened herself against the wall – avoiding the flames completely. Stepping forward again and coming en garde, she smiled, “You shouldn’t talk to Miss Tellith like that.” She backed out of the way as Agnarr and Tor, pushing their way through the door, closed in.

The ogre growled, backing away cautiously. “Kill the woman! Now!”

One of the thugs headed towards Tellith. She screamed and ducked under the front desk.”

“Seeaeti!” Agnarr called.

The ogre was pretty much blocking the entire front hall, so Seeaeti – being a clever hound – leapt through the front window, landed in a cascade of glass on a table, jumped from there onto the floor, ducked under a club swung by the nearest thug, and then harried his leg – keeping him away from Tellith.

Two more of the thugs were heading towards Tor. Tor eased into a defensive posture and then, in a flurry of sudden motion, beheaded the two thugs and gutted the ogre. All three of them fell dead.

Ranthir gaped. “That was amazing…”

“Keep one of them alive!” Tee pushed her way to the front of their line and thrust her dragon pistol into the face of the last thug. “Surrender!”

“No problem! No problem at all! I’m just the hired help!”

Without taking her eyes off him, Tee called over her shoulder. “Are you all right, Tellith?”

“I think so… Is it safe to come out?” Tellith crawled out from under the desk and patted Seeaeti on the nose. “Good dog!”

Questioning the thug they discovered that he and the other two had been hired by the ogre – who had been named Fatok – to provide an intimidating front. (“The ogre wasn’t intimidating enough?” Dominic wondered aloud. “Strength in numbers, I guess,” said the thug. “I just took the cash.”) They’d been extorting various businesses up and down Tavern Row in the name of the Killravens when Fatok had decided that the Ghostly Minstrel was a rich and tempting target.

They cut him loose with a message for the Killravens: Stay away from the Minstrel.

Dominic healed the other two thugs and got them on their feet – they had, after all, just been hired help.

By the time he was done, a member of the watch had shown up. Looking at them, the watchman smirked. “You again? I thought you were keeping your noses clean.”

It was the same watchmen they’d run into so many times on their second day in town. He briefly questioned them and Tellith, and then took the two thugs into custody.

“What about him?” Tee asked, nudging the ogre with her foot.

“Huh…” The watchmen looked down. “Well, he’s too heavy for me to carry. I’ll grab some of the others and come back to haul him out of here.”

After the watchman left, they quickly searched Fatok’s body. They found that he wore an ebon ring shaped like a curved feather. (“We need to get rings,” Dominic said.) They were discussing how they could move him to some place secure where they could revive him and question him, but then the watchman returned with help and hauled the corpse away.

Running the Campaign: Withdrawing in Victory – Campaign Journal: Session 35B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 34D: The Battle Turns Again

Tee, now outside the tower, levitated into the air and tried taking potshots at the ratbrutes… but the dwarf, having safely retreated down the hall from the melee but still with a clear line of sight, started summoning fiery-eyed hawks with metallic, razor-sharp feathers to harry her. Their cruel beaks and claws took bloody gouges of flesh out of her.

2D battlemap = 2D thinking.

But if you neglect the third dimension in your game, then you’re flattening the game experience. (Pun intended.)

This session provides a pretty good sampler platter of third-dimensional stuff: The multi-level tower. The structure with both a rooftop and interior level. Windows looking down on the battlefield. Spider-creatures crawling around on the walls and swinging on webs. Flying imps. Levitating heroes. Leaping and climbing and all kinds of stuff.

A few things I think about when combat goes vertical.

Multiple Elevations. When designing your dungeon and/or battlemap, don’t forget to include multiple elevations. It won’t do you any good to remember that the third dimension exists during the fight if you get trapped by 2D-thinking during design and everything is flat as a pancake.

I kind of roughly think of this in terms of bumps and levels. The distinction here is not a particularly firm one, and I may have just made up those terms as a convenient way of leveling thoughts that have been pretty vague in my own head. A bump is basically just something that alters a continuous floor level — a dais, a rocky outcropping, a treehouse, etc.

A level, on the other hand, is a completely separate floor. A balcony flanking one side of a courtyard is a great example. You might also have a floating platform thirty feet above the ground, or a cliff that leads to a lower pit. It’s possible the two levels are directly connected, but they might have completely separate exits and entrances.

On that note, something to think about here is what the transition from one elevation to another looks like: Is it as easy as just stepping from one to another? A set of stairs or a ladder? Do you have to climb or jump? This will obviously have a profound impact on how the fight plays out, so think about the chokepoints you’re creating on the battlefield and how limited access can create challenges for both PCs and NPCs to overcome.

(And since NPCs can often have access to abilities that the PCs don’t — i.e., a dragon flying or giant spiders climbing on the walls — this can also create asymmetric battlefields.)

Levitation v. Flying. Of course, being able to move through the air is a great cheat code for navigating spaces with multiple elevation.

I think it’s important for levitation to feel distinct from flying, particularly in D&D. (They’re separate spells for a reason!) The key thing is that levitation only allows you to move straight up or down unless you can push or pull yourself along a wall or ceiling. This is fun in its own right because it creates a unique challenge for levitating characters, but in D&D it’s also how you set up the reward of unlocking full-blown flight later in the game.

Fun levitation “hacks” you can play around with: How far can you go by pushing hard off a surface? Do you just float in a straight line until you hit another obstacle (like an astronaut in zero-g)? Or is it more limited than that? (Maybe you could determine distance from a push-off the same way you would with a jump?)

Can you push off other combatants? Or be thrown by them? (And if so, how would you want to resolve that?)

Something else to think about is aerial strafing. The image of a dragon flying past a battlefield and unleashing a torrent of flame is pretty awesome. Some games will try to enforce that “realistic flying” (as opposed to magical/Superman-style “perfect” flight) mechanically, but many won’t (in part because a lot of those systems just turn into a huge bookkeeping headache).

If you want to try to enforce “realistic flying,” it’s probably enough to just require a minimum movement each round, and just assume that somehow the character is doing aerobatic maneuvering to pull off whatever path that movement actually takes.

Either way, even if it’s not mechanically “required,” you can still describe your dragons strafing the battlefield.

Tracking the 3^rd Dimension. If you’re using miniatures, how do you keep track of all this?

If you’ve only got one or two or maybe a few fliers on the battlefield, I find it’s usually enough to just provide a clear indicator of THAT CHARACTER IS FLYING to help everyone keep track of things.

The most effective — and also visually pleasing — way of doing this, in my experience, is some kind of platform that the character’s miniature or token can sit on.

• You can buy combat risers specifically made for this.
• The dice cubes that d6s or other dice sets are sometimes sold in can be a great solution.
• The little plastic platforms that pizza places use to hold up the box lid are also great. Plus, they’re free. All you need to do is start a collection.

I’ll often track the elevation of a flying character by just writing the number on the Chessex battlemap right next to them. If can’t write on the map, or don’t want to, you can also use numeric tokens or a stack of blank chits.

If you want more than that, more sophisticated combat risers will incorporate height-tracking, either through a gauge or through stackable pieces.

(The stackable risers are great because they give an easy visual reference for where different flying combatants are located in relation to each other. In my experience, though, it’s best not to get too tightly trapped in the idea of tracking specific 5-ft. or even 10-ft. increments with the risers. Partly because you can easily limit the flexibility of your three-dimensional space. But more importantly because fidgeting with stacks of plastic bits can be a real drag. So I tend to use the stackable risers to broadly indicate which vertical “level” combatants are on — these guys are all about ten feet up; these guys are about forty feet up; etc. — and, if more precision is needed, it can be handled through the other tracking methods we’ve described.)

Mapping 3D Spaces. Of course, if you’ve been designing areas with multiple elevations, it’s not just the combatants you need to depict verticality for.

If you’re using 3D terrain, of course, this problem can often take care of itself.

If the separate elevations are fairly clear, just noting the height difference on the map is often enough. For more complex spaces, you might want to sketch a side-view next to the primary battlemap, providing a quick reference for, e.g., how high the tower is vs. the carriage-house vs. the boulder vs. where the harpies are currently flying.

Tip: Duplicate minis or other tokens can also be to track figures simultaneously on both maps; the battlemap giving X-Y coordinates, and the side-map giving a X-Z coordinates.

Calculating Movement. Tracking the elevation of characters moving straight up and down isn’t too hard, but as soon as characters start moving at angles through the third dimension it’s easy for your brain to break.

Your grade school math teacher told you the Pythagorean theorem would be useful! And they were right!

But what I’ve done is actually prep an Aerial Distance Table: Calculate the horizontal distance and vertical distance traveled, and a quick cross-reference on the table will tell you far the character actually traveled in a straight line.

This table appears on page 78 of Legends & Labyrinths, so you can grab a copy for yourself.

Campaign Journal: Session 35A – Running the Campaign: Withdrawing in Victory
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 34D: THE BATTLE TURNS AGAIN

January 5th, 2009
The 18th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

… AND AGAIN … AND AGAIN

Things looked bleak. But then Agnarr, who had been feigning death while secretly being replenished by Dominic’s touch, surged up – stabbing the ratbrute in the back from his prone position. The ratbrute with a snarl of rage backhanded him, sending the barbarian back into unconsciousness, and then moved towards Seeaeti.

But Dominic, with another burst of divine energy, had managed to close up Tor’s grievous wounds. With the vicious serrated edges of raw flesh still glowing from holy power, Tor stood up.

The ratbrute whirled to face him… and then was forced to retreat before his bloody-minded assault. It cried out to the dwarf over its shoulder. “Woreron! Help me! Help me, please!”

But to no avail. Tor cut him down.

The dwarf, having apparently exhausted his supply of spells summoning a veritable swarm of hawks to plague Tee in the air, charged back into melee. Tor, who had been anticipating doing the same to him, blocked the sudden and unexpected attack in frustration.

Ibulli swooped out of the door and up to a level equal with Tee… who promptly released the magic of her boots and dropped back to the ground as the summoned hawks began winking out of existence.

Tor headed towards the spider-thing, letting Agnarr (newly rejuvenated once more by the constant ministrations of Dominic) take his place in the skirmish with the dwarf. Ibulli and the dwarf both fought towards each other, trying to encircle the battered heroes. And then the quasit reappeared as well – darting in and out of invisibility as it harried them time and time again.

But then Dominic dumped a potion of see invisibility down Tor’s throat, and he could finally see the invisible quasit. The quasit, on the other hand — getting ready to leap onto Agnarr’s back — never saw it coming: Tor thrust his sword straight through its tiny chest.

The quasit screamed in pain and tried to pull itself off Tor’s sword… but it was too late. Tor smashed the blade to the ground, cleaving the demonling in twain.

THE FINAL BLOWS

With the quasit’s death, Ibulli gave a wail of pain and re-doubled its efforts.

The combatants circled each other in a furious flurry of blows, but then Elestra emerged from the tower and Woreron the dwarf found himself caught between her and Tor.

With Woreron’s defenses harried, Tor was able to land a blow hard enough to dent the dwarf’s armor. Electricity arced up from the impact and the dwarf grimaced in pain.

But then the grimace turned to a grisly smile and the dwarf took a casual swing at Elestra with his battleaxe, easily sweeping aside her rapier and cutting deep into her thigh.

“A fine hit, youngling,” he grinned manically at Tor. “But what are you going to do once your friend is dead?”

“What did he say?” Agnarr shouted over the din of battle.

“He’s taunting me!” Tor laughed. “He’s actually taunting me.”

Tor swept the dwarf’s axe to one side and killed him. “That. That’s what I’m going to do.”

He pulled his blade free from the dwarf’s corpse with a crackle of lightning.

Agnarr, seeing the dwarf fall, threw his own blade aside and grappled Ibulli – thinking it imperative that the creature not be allowed to flee lest it fetch yet more reinforcements to the fray.

Ibulli struggled to escape. And perhaps, if Agnarr’s massive thews had been unsapped he might have held. But eventually the thrashings of the creature freed it. It began to fly up and away…

… and Seeaeti leapt up onto its back, grabbed the spidery head in its teeth, and tore. The bloated body of the spider-thing collapsed at Agnarr’s feet while Seeaeti landed nimbly a few feet away with the head clenched between his teeth. He padded over and dropped it at Agnarr’s feet.

The barbarian laughed. “Good boy!”

WITHDRAWING IN VICTORY

The invisible Dominic did a quick sweep through the partially excavated building from which the ratmen had emerged, but found little of interest.

Of much more interest, however, was the room from which Woreron the dwarf had come. It turned out to be his personal bedchamber, with a wooden bed, a chest of drawers, and (most interesting of all) a large iron coffer.

The chest of drawers contained nothing but clothing and personal items of little note, but the iron coffer was locked. In fact, a careful inspection revealed that it was double locked – with a second, concealed keyhole on the base of the coffer which disabled a trap on the primary lock. Tee quickly picked both locks and opened the coffer to find several potions, a collection of fancy snuff bottles, a silk purse filled with coins, and a thick sheath of papers.

From there they worked their way back through the complex – searching the bodies as they went. On one of Ibulli’s claws they found a bone ring matching in all ways those they had recovered from the creatures which had breached the Banewarrens and they fell into a brief discussion concerning its meaning. (Was there a connection between the cultists and the activities at the Banewarrens?)

On Woreron’s corpse they found two keys (causing Tee to groan at the thought of the wasted time she had just spent picking the locks on the iron coffer).

On Gavele, they found a note:

LETTER FROM REGGALOCH TO RHINNIS

Rhinnis,

I think we are being foolish. The Brothers of Venom are almost certain to betray us. They seek nothing less than complete control over the venom-shaped thralls. I am leaving to warn Malleck in the Ebon Hand Temple. He must know about the violent treachery they plot. Watch your back until I can return.

Reggaloch

Tee suspected that this was the note she had seen Gavele remove from Reggaloch’s corpse in the apartment complex.

Heading cautiously up the stairs in the tower, they found the second level choked full with Ibulli’s webs. Hidden within the webs they found a small cache of gems and other treasures, including a finely-crafted wooden puzzle locket. Once Tee realized what she was looking at, she was able to quickly undo the puzzle, revealing the locket’s hidden compartment. Within it, they found another letter – this one only half completed — written to the Brothers of the Quaan.

UNFINISHED NOTE TO THE BROTHERS OF THE QUAAN

Brothers of the Quaan—

The cultists’ research into askara has proven successful. I have obtained a sample which I will send with this missive. Its effects are even more potent than we had been led to believe. They have, if anything, improved upon the arts of Jessuk. I think it truly possible that we may have gained the key for both subjugating and using the scum of the natural races.

Although my mission has been accomplished, I shall not return yet. There is another project here – one the cultists believe to be even larger than their venom-shaped thralls. They talk of a huge machine in the caves beyond, and something called the Final Ritual which will be performed […]

Then, in the lower level of the tower they found a hidden compartment beneath the stairs, containing a small bed. Hidden under the mattress of the bed, there was another letter, this one written by Gavele and addressed to Wuntad.

LETTER FROM WUNTAD TO GAVELE

Gavele—

I applaud your sentiments. As long as none of the Tolling Bell are challenged and the work is not threatened, allow those squabbling fools to do whatever they want and spill blood wherever they will. The strongest shall prevail. Chaos shall reign. The Night of Dissolution nears and all acts are as homage to those who will be freed!

Wuntad

Satisfied that they had found all that there was to find, they quickly hurried back up the stairs and out of the Old City.

Their bodies were wracked with poison. The Brotherhood of Venom had lived up to its name and taken their toll. But, in the end, they had little difficulty escaping through the sewers and emerging onto the streets of Ptolus about a quarter mile from the apartment complex.

DWARVENHEARTH RESEARCH

This is a thick bundle of parchment tied together with black ribbon. These papers appear to be a disparate collection of research pertaining to Dwarvenhearth – a legendary dwarven city referenced obliquely in many ancient texts and believed to lay somewhere beneath Ptolus.

SEALED DOORS: Several dozen pages appeared to have been excerpted from the reports and journals of many different delvers. These describe massive doors found in various locations deep in the caverns beneath Ptolus. These doors are all virtually identical and clearly fashioned with dwarven skills, but have apparently proven impenetrable.

Included in these papers are several sketches of the doors, including an arcano-map of one of the doors (etching the patterns of arcane force present in the doors) and attempts to decipher (unsuccessfully) the various wards and seals protecting the doors.

ESTIMATED SIZE: Another large section of the research appears to be an attempt to estimate the size of the complex locked behind the doors that had already been discovered. It appeared that some of the doors were more than a mile apart, suggesting a city larger than some of the Kingdoms of the East. More than ten thousand dwarves might have once lived there.

THUNDERSONG: There are many myths collected from the Three Kingdoms regarding a mythical axe known as Thundersong. This is one of the great dwarven axes. There are several notes connecting various pieces of research which make it clear that the writer believes Thundersong lies within the city of Dwarvenhearth. There are references to the tale of the Woman Thane of Utarien, a legendary swordswoman of the Three Kingdoms, who the writer connects to the “Line of Queens” associated with Dwarvenhearth in several ancient texts.

CATHEDRAL CAVERN: In the middle of the papers, carefully wrapped in silk cloth, is what appears to be the original copy of a small, ancient painting depicting a subterranean cavern of mammoth proportions. Built on the floor of the cavern are five massive ziggurats. There is a short inscription of dwarven runes on the front of the painting. On the back, written in faded common, are the words “The Cathedral Cavern”.

CONCLAVE OF THE QUEEN: There is one enigmatic note buried in the various pieces of research which reads, “I believe that the Conclave of the Queen is responsible for the loss of the third testaments.”

STUDIES OF AKNAR RATALLA

The pages of this small notebook with a cover of black leather are covered with meticulous notes regarding Aknar Ratalla.

AKNAR RATALLA: Aknar Ratalla was apparently a minor, but powerful, warlord in the annals of prehistory a few decades before the founding of Arathia. References to him in historical records are apparently scant, because the notebook’s writer has clearly had to go far afield to collect much of the lightly detailed material.

SIEGE OF THE DALENGUARD: Aknar Ratalla cut a wide swath through the lands of what would become western Arathia. At the height of his power he laid siege to the Dalenguard at the foot of the Spire. In one of the texts collected here, this siege reportedly lasted for “101 days and nights through the hard winter of the wolf”.

THE END OF AKNAR RATALLA: Aknar Ratalla possessed the “power of the Vested” and he wielded the Blade of Chaos. With these “twin mights” he was “unvanquished”. Nonetheless the Siege of the Dalenguard ended when Aknar Ratalla disappeared and his warriors scattered.

THE TOMB OF AKNAR RATALLA: In the back of the notebook are three scraps of badly tattered parchment covered with various illustrations and dwarven runes. Several pages near the end of the notebook provide a translation of this text along with an extensive and evolving analysis of it.

The writer believed that Aknar Ratalla and the Blade of Chaos were interred in a dwarven-built tomb somewhere in the caverns beneath Ptolus. After what appears to be years of research, it appears that – from the scraps of parchment and other sources – he has reconstructed the secret path that would lead to the tomb.

Unfortunately, the path originates at a place named Kaled Del – a small dwarven settlement beneath the city. Recently rediscovered by the Delver’s Guild, the location of Kaled Del nevertheless remains a secret: The Delver’s Guild has kept that secret in order to monopolize trade with the dwarves.

There are several pages of frustrated ruminations as the author attempts to re-discover the location of Kaled Del himself… but meets with failure.

“I shall speak to Gavele about going to the Guild directly. The Tolling Bell must surely realize the importance of recovering an artifact such as the Blade of  Chaos.”

Running the Campaign: Combat Verticality – Campaign Journal: Session 35A
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 34C: Back in the Tower Again

Tee slapped Elestra out of her hypnotic trance and then headed for the door.

“Tee! Wait!” Elestra called. “Help me finish off the whatsit!”

The quasit popped out of thin air and raked at Elestra’s throat, sending blood pouring down her chest. It hissed with a sneer. “Don’t call me a whatsit!”

Tor retreated back into the tower. Dominic, having finally freed himself from Ibulli’s web, infused him with a wash of divine energy that closed his wounds and soothed his battered limbs and then sent him back into the fight outside.

Ibulli flew down from above.

“She’s flying now!” Elestra cried. “That’s not fair!”

We’ve previously discussed the value of developing a toolkit of basic tactical techniques as a GM — e.g., in Half Across the River and Hear the Reinforcements. The technique that I’m referring to as an ornate checkpoint is actually one that I first discovered while running this specific adventure designed by Monte Cook.

The basic idea can be seen in Area 3 on the dungeon map:

This tower creates a chokepoint between Area 1 and Area 5. A similar effect, of course, could be created by just having a single door leading directly from Area 1 to Area 5 (as we discussed at greater length in Battles at the Door during the previous session), but in practice, the fact that Area 3 is a distinct liminal space had a profound impact on the complexity of the tactics that both the PCs and NPCs were able to employ.

Meanwhile, below, Tor threw himself against the tower door and burst it open. The inside of the tower was bereft of interior walls with a floor of sandy, hard-packed dirt. A broken staircase wound its way around the inner wall of the tower, up to a trapdoor in the ceiling above.

By the time Tor burst in, Gavele had already crossed the entire tower (with seemingly preternatural speed). Tor and Agnarr raced to catch her, but she managed to wrench open the far door, slip through it, and slam it shut behind her.

The effect was further enhanced by the vertical design of Area 3. This included windows looking out into the other areas, which created unusual multiple access points. The staircase and webs also made Area 3 an interesting tactical arena in its own right, and the presence of Area 4 above actually made it a multi-directional chokepoint.

Take all of these elements together, and you can easily see both the opportunities and challenges that are created for the PCs.

Of course, this works best when you’re running the dungeon as a theater of operations, and you can see that during this fight, with the PCs engaging foes across Areas 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7, with additional reinforcements also coming up from the south. (And Area 7 is a multi-level area in its own right.)

Here are a few random tips I’ve learned while designing and running ornate chokepoints:

• They don’t have to be ultra-complicated. In fact, they don’t need to be complicated at all.
• Personally, I find the imagery of an “airlock” useful. The ornate chokepoint is the transition between two much larger and more complicated regions of the dungeon.
• You might find the idea of the ornate chokepoint being a “pivot” more evocative. Sometimes I think of it as a “gravity well,” with the focus of the dungeon being drawn into the chokepoint.
• For the ornate chokepoint to truly come alive, you’ll want to make sure to challenge the PCs from multiple directions. If you don’t, the ornate chokepoint will usually just collapse back into a simple doorway. (For example, imagine if the PCs in this session weren’t being harried by aranea and quasits from Area 4. The dynamics of the fight would have collapsed into the doorway between Areas 3 and 5. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course, particularly if the PCs have earned their victory on one of the fronts.)
• This, of course, can also be very dangerous, since it can easily result in the PCs being cut off from retreat. (That’s one the tactical challenges of the ornate chokepoint, but doesn’t make it any less catastrophic if the fight turns against them.) This is where designing the ornate chokepoint as a multi-directional chokepoint can be very useful: You can pressure them from two directions, while still giving them the opportunity for escape along a third.
• Often you’ll discover – or the players will force you to discover! – an ornate chokepoint during play. This will happen more often if you make sure random encounters can approach the PCs from any direction (most notably, the rear), particularly if those encounters are being triggered due to the noise from combat.

Of course, not every ornate chokepoint you include in a dungeon will automatically become an Epic Fight Scene™. But scatter a few of them around the place, run dynamic fights across a theater of operations, and see where the game takes you!

Campaign Journal: Session 34D – Running the Campaign: Combat Verticality
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 34C: BACK IN THE TOWER AGAIN

January 5th, 2009
The 18th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

THE DWARF AND THE RATS

An unnoticed door down the northwestern passage swung open. Agnarr and Ranthir were the only ones who could see a bald dwarf with a bushy black beard and eyebrows emerge. He was muttering under his breath as he circled around the melee raging in the middle of the chamber and ran towards the partially excavated building.

The others were distracted by the quasit, who had reappeared once again and attacked Tee, poisoning her just as it had Elestra. Agnarr did his best to cut the dwarf off, but the thralls were blocking him.

The dwarf wrenched open the door of the building. “Rouse yourselves! Get out here and fight!”

“We only take orders from Gavele, dwarf!”

“Gavele is dead you fools!”

Agnarr wasn’t sure what to do. He was still facing two of the thralls and now there were unknown reinforcements coming. He tried to cheer himself with the thought that Gavele’s men – whoever they might be – would be frightened off by the news of her death.

It was a thin hope, but a better one was coming: Tor returned, charging into the flank of the thralls.

The charge came close to routing them, but then a ratling and a ratbrute emerged from the building. The ratbrute was unslinging a greatsword of leviathan proportions while the ratling lowered another of the dilapidated dragon rifles and—

“Two hundred gold pieces for each of you if you attack the dwarf instead!” Dominic was still struggling in the goopy web, but he shouted out the offer in a voice laced with sincerity.

The ratling hesitated. Then he turned to his companion with a sly grin. “I never liked that dwarf anyway.”

The ratling started to lower his rifle and turned back towards the building.

“TRAITOR!” the ratbrute cried in a thick, lumbering voice. It brought its greatsword crashing down towards the smaller ratling, who barely managed to turn the skull-crushing blow into a merely laming shoulder wound.

The ratling stumbled back, shooting at the ratbrute with his rifle. The shot went wild, but a second shot – coming from the interior of the building – struck the ratbrute in the chest. The stench of burning rat fur filled the air.

MEANWHILE, IN THE TOWER…

Elestra had freed herself from the webs and moved to help cut Tee from hers. But the quasit reappeared again, its vicious claws slashing at her legs.

Ranthir drew his crossbow and fired at it, but it was too small and too quick. Elestra, however, managed to stab it with her rapier. It clutched at its chest, hissed at her, and disappeared.

“It won’t be gone long!” Ranthir cried. “It’s a quasit and the wound was already healing.”

“A whatsit?” Elestra asked.

“A quasit,” Ranthir said. “A minor demonling.”

Tee, meanwhile, had finished cutting herself free. She and Elestra turned their attention to the ceiling and started firing at the spider-thing.

But Ibulli was weaving her spells again. A twisting pattern of subtle, shifting colors erupted from the air in a hypnotic dance of multi-colored light. Tee wrenched her eyes away from it, but Elestra’s gaze became arrested by the display – she stood helpless, swaying gently from side to side.

Ibulli seized the distraction to scuttle back into the safety of the upper level of the tower.

RATBRUTE MELEE

While the ratmen had fought amongst themselves, Tor and Agnarr had managed to finish off the venom-shaped thralls. Now, however, another of the ratbrutes had pushed its way out of the partially excavated building.

Meanwhile, the dwarf had reappeared on the roof of the building. He summoned another of the flame-eyed rats and used it to harry Tor while the ratbrutes moved in from the other direction.

Agnarr turned and raced towards the building, trying to leap up to where the dwarf stood. He came up short, jumped again, and this time managed to grab onto the edge of the roof.

The dwarf, seeing him coming, ran down the length of the building and jumped off, landing behind the ratbrutes. Yanking out a scroll he used its magicks to heal the wounds that Tor had been inflicting on the ratbrutes.

Agnarr shrugged and dropped back down to the floor of the cavern. He ran down along the length of the building, trying to circle the ratbrutes and reach the dwarf.

Unfortunately, at that very moment, one of the brutes cut through Tor’s defenses and ripped open a gaping wound in his chest. In a spray of blood it carried its swing around and struck Agnarr in the back, opening a huge gash across the barbarian’s already abused shoulders and sending him stumbling forward. As a result, Agnarr’s own swing went wild and the dwarf was able to retreat back down the wide hallway running to the south.

BACK IN THE TOWER AGAIN

Tee slapped Elestra out of her hypnotic trance and then headed for the door.

“Tee! Wait!” Elestra called. “Help me finish off the whatsit!”

The quasit popped out of thin air and raked at Elestra’s throat, sending blood pouring down her chest. It hissed with a sneer. “Don’t call me a whatsit!”

Tor retreated back into the tower. Dominic, having finally freed himself from Ibulli’s web, infused him with a wash of divine energy that closed his wounds and soothed his battered limbs and then sent him back into the fight outside.

Ibulli flew down from above.

“She’s flying now!” Elestra cried. “That’s not fair!”

THE BATTLE TURNS AGAINST THEM

Tee, now outside the tower, levitated into the air and tried taking potshots at the ratbrutes… but the dwarf, having safely retreated down the hall from the melee but still with a clear line of sight, started summoning fiery-eyed hawks with metallic, razor-sharp feathers to harry her. Their cruel beaks and claws took bloody gouges of flesh out of her.

Ranthir, seeing that Tor and Agnarr were both badly wounded and struggling against the ratbrutes outside, poured an invisibility potion down Dominic’s throat. “Now go heal some people!”

Agnarr was knocked from his feet. Feeling Dominic’s invisible, healing touch, he tried to get back on his feet… and was knocked right back down again.

A few moments later, Tor managed to take down one of the ratbrutes, but the other – with a howl of rage – smashed his blade into Tor’s armor with enough force that he felt blood in his mouth. Tor managed to barely turn the next blow so that the flat of the ratbrute’s sword hit him instead of the edge (which would have decapitated him), but the blow still had enough force to knock him to the ground.

And then the ratbrute’s sword plunged down, pinning him to the blood-soaked dust.

Dominic, still invisible, left Agnarr’s side and hurried quickly to heal Tor before it was too late.

Meanwhile, back in the tower, Ranthir had been preparing himself to counter Ibulli’s magic. But instead of casting another spell, Ibulli swooped down at him. He stumbled backwards… but not fast enough. The creature’s venomous fangs closed on Ranthir’s shoulder. He collapsed, frothing at the mouth.

As Ranthir fell, Elestra managed to injure the quasit again… and, once again, it disappeared.

Running the Campaign: Ornate Chokepoints – Campaign Journal: Session 34D
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index