Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Remember the Skyrim Relase?

The night in question. I was ready for action!
During the release of Skyrim I had the great pleasure of running a modified Pathfinder style game. One of the managers at Gamestop asked me if I knew anyone who could run a game and I said, "Yes, me!" Here's the story!





I was asked me to run a game with a Viking/Skyrim theme that would be suitable for people that had never played a table-top RPG. So I printed a map of Skyrim and a map of snowy terrain that I added my own custom hex schme to. I created a small village that a group of wanders had crash landed at (by boat). To repay the village for healing them the village elder, a fierce older woman told them they had to go take care of a creature that was harrasing the town. It had killed several people and a group of five warriors from the village had left three days ago to kill it, but no one had heard from them. To find the monster they would have to go up to the top of a nearby mountain, but first they would have to stop by the hut at the base of the mountain to learn more. Living in the hut was a wise old man who had a beautiful young wife. I really played up the wife and the four guys playing the game were stoked to go check out this hut (i.e. "see" this woman)

By the way, the players included 2 old hats and 2 n00bs. It was a great combo actually.

As the four PCs made their way to the hut I had them roll checks and hear wolves all around them. They were terrified, especially one of the guys who is a regular DM. He was bracing for a massive wolf attack.

Instead, they slog through the heavy snow and reach the base of the mountain untouched. Hey, I only had a little over an hour to make this game happen. So they reach the hut with the beautiful young woman and the old wise man. The old man bursts out of the hut, puts his arm protectively over the door and says.

"What do you want! Why are you strangers here?"

The ranger rolls sense motive. He gets a 1. I tell him. You suddenly think you are at your grandpa's house. You love your grandpa and try to run up and give him a hug.

Meanwhile...

Wizard, "We want to see your wife! Your beautiful wife that we have heard so much about"

Wise Old Man, "Hahah. Foolish young men! She is indeed gorgeous!"

Wizard, "Let us see her."

Wise Old Man, "Oh yes. But she is visiting her mother in town"

Hahahahah. Oh man. Those players faces just dropped. Hahaha. What's more the wizard gets enchanted by the wise old man and feels a strange attraction to him. Finally, the fighter tells the old man why they are there and all is fine.

Anyhow, they go inside. The old guy feeds them and then casts a frost resitance on them, which I explain as them feeling suddenly warm and able to withstand the cold better (I also tell them they have a +4).

So they ask what the monster could be, not knowing that hidden in my purse was a figure of the monster itself. Hohoho. The old man tells them he doesn't know, but it leaves dragging marks in the snow and that he had never seen it. After an hour passes in game they leave and continue up the mountain. The ranger keeps wanting to break away to scout the other side of the mountain, but the group convinces him to stay and soon they come upon an object hanging in a tree. The tree is at the base of a steep incline that leads up to a rocky outcropping. On closer inspection it proves to be an arm, frozen, but bloody. Oh yes and they can hear more wolves.

The group sets up the incline, splitting into two to go up both sides (trees separate the center). They reach the top and find weird mounds in the snow. Ahead of them is a sheer rock wall with outcroppings of boulders and a crack down the center. Suddenly the ranger can tell that the mounds are torn apart bodies. Then five huge, snarling wolves jump out from the tree line and advance towards the men. The wolves howl and a strang cracking noise errupts from between the rocks. Long, clawed arms appear and then are followed by the body of a huge injured white dragon. It still has arrows in its side from fighting the first party. The dragon snatches a wolf up in its claws and then dashes it dead on the rocks. The other wolves whimper and run away.

So, the party fights and fights. They do their best and the wizard's fireball spell really helps them in this situation, as does the fact that I had the dragon's HP already lowered from its fight with the first party. After an epic struggle in which the cleric forgets to do his buffs or heals and almost gets the ranger killed until I cough *healing* in his direction, the dragon is finally taken down to a few HP. The fighter rolls and gets the damage needed to slay the dragon. I tell him. You rush towards the beast, jumping in the air as it falls to the ground at your feet. Your axe bites through its neck, severing the head and spraying blood in the air over you and the rest of the party.

They each cut a tooth out to take back for proof of the kill. The village holds a huge party for them and they each take turns dancing with the mysterious older woman who runs the village. Here is the last line. "As you each dance with her in turn, spinning drunk and relieved with happiness that you are alive she confides in you 'I knew all along what it was and I didn't think you'd make it back alive'"



1 comment:

  1. Sounds awesome! From what I've seen/heard of my husband's games, a lot of clerics forget to heal. Weird, eh? I actually had the opposite problem: I was so focused on healing, I would forget that I could join the fight. Jim actually had to remind me that I had Death Knell.

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