Oh this is ridiculous

I’m beginning to think I’ve got a black mark on me. Two sessions, two parties being torn apart by rampant kobolds. Well, technically, the goblin was the undoing of group number two...among other considerations.

The group assembled was the usual gang, minus one because apparently he disappears into the hills on his birthday, with another old friend who has tried to play with us in the past and a female friend who brought about the major distraction. The premade characters were distributed with only a couple of complaints, and we were on our way.

They were much more methodical in the destruction of enemies. They were equally shocked when the kobolds could take a hit or two, and were equally upset when one of their own fell to these little bastards. They were determined, however, and moved on past the second encounter to upset the main kobold camp.

At about this time in real time, the effects of that evening’s “special treat” started kicking in for about four of the six people involved...including myself. Valuable lesson: running a campaign and mind-altering drugs do not mix, and from this point on I demand all involved keep their wits about them at the gaming table. I apologize profusely to those involved for making what should have been a night of bloodshed into a night of fuzzy annoyance.

Anyway, they came across the kobold encampment, and managed to shock and murder all those outside with ease, only to come up across a dangerous wall of kobolds just inside the waterfall cave. These kobolds managed to corner them and started taking out the heroes one by one (mainly because I was rolling really well, and they weren’t) and with three heroes down, the goblin showed up and started keeping the heroes down after every attempt to get them back up. The fact it became more powerful while bloodied and slowly regained hit points definitely made it overly difficult to kill him.

Eventually, they remembered action points...which helped a great deal. Being able to add an extra attack on your turn is significant, allowing for a desperate situation to reverse quickly...if you roll well, which they didn’t. One thing that also would have saved them is the cleric’s daily ability, which would have gave each ally 5 hit points, which would have saved their ass with nearly everyone but her down. But by that time, two players were asleep, one was off his balls, one hadn’t played in any real capacity, and the last was noticeably frustrated. The night ended with the cleric running away and the rest dying on the ground like animals.

The lesson here is that purchased adventures are a lot more intense than the adventures I run, probably more so thanks to the change in healing and power efficiency of every player. With all characters now able to do something...the combat is going to be a lot tougher, which we aren’t used to. Hopefully after a few trips around the block we’ll be more used to the new heat. If not...I hope they don’t get too invested in their characters, because I’m getting good at killing me some adventurers.