A Summary of Adventures Unwritten!

Hey there! I have kept on playing, but with an emphasis on coming up with a bit of a plot for Our Heroes to follow, and it doesn't seem to do justice to that for me to do combat summaries. However, lately I've been a bit too busy to play the games *AND* do full nice write-ups, so will not likely be able to post what I'd like to, quality wise. So, I'll write summaries at each level for now.

Level 9: Thieves in the Night
Our heroes are relaxing at Mia's alchemical apothecary when a whole den of thieves storms in upstairs and through the front door. Two thief brutes with a vicious mastiff attack our heroes while they are sipping on tea, while 5 thieves upstairs root through Mia's stock looking for something! Our heroes are pinned against the wall and send the brutes and their dogs packing and rush upstairs as quick as possible. Three thieves jump out the window with a stolen vial of Deathbloom Serum Mia had hidden, and two thief warriors fight a delaying action. After killing the warriors, Our Heroes dash into the night, towards the docks, in pursuit of the burglars. Losing track of them for a moment, they stumble upon them and see them duck into a hideout by a pier: a storehouse for seal clubbers.

Mia and Saribke knock down the front door and toss firebombs at the thieves, fighting off a thief mage and two chainfighters, and end up having to fight an Oni in the basement who has the deathly serum. After a difficult fight with the Oni, the Oni manages to escape. However, after searching the place and deciphering a coded diary, the heroes are able to uncover a plot to murder the local Prefect at a dinner party the next day. Our heroes go to sleep at a local inn, but they are ambushed at night by two doppleganger assassins. Fighting unarmored, it is a close fight but they manage to kill the shapeshifters before coming to a fatal end. They try to sleep until morning, where they will have to figure a way to warn the prefect.

Swapping Up A Bit

Decided to use the new books I've ordered (Eberron Campaign/Player Guides and Arcane Power): gonna rebuild Mia as an artificer, since I really like some of the abilities and I've enjoyed having her throw alchemical bombs all around the place more than cursing people. I'll also take the opportunity to rebuild Saribke a bit: same basic idea, but gonna have him try out a Bastard Sword and a Heavy Shield for a while, and choose some different powers for him.

Main changes:
-Saribke and Mia will both be Mul's.
-Mia uses a throwing dagger instead of a pact blade, and is an artificer with weapon buff abilities and heavy use of alchemical items. She can help saribke out a lot more now, and can heal.
-Saribke switches to bastard sword and heavy shield, and is more 'physical' stat wise, so he can take some nice feats later in his career.
-Both are much more survivable: more HP, more surges, and more capability for resisting/healing themselves.

Main things staying the same:
-Mia tries to stay behind Saribke and spams ranged attacks and grenades.
-Saribke is very mobile, tough, and does lots of push attacks.

Delve 6: Silly Snakes, Life is for People!

Our Heroes, afraid that success had made them forget their roots and where they came from, return to basics and assault a Pit of Cultish Despair!

Encounter 16: Herein, Our Heroes Yawn at Yuan-Ti

Barging down the stairs, Saribke and Mia are startled to discover a snake pit that has the temerity to challenge their manifest ownership of anything beneath street level! Using grenades of alchemical fire, Mia makes kebab sans stick of half the enemy, while Saribke inserts the the skewer into those who remain. After a quick overwhelming assault, Our Heroes emerge victorious, and push deeper into the dungoen.

Result: Two-turn kill. Lots and lots of minions get blown to smithereens by blast damage, and making Mia take Alchemy is really paying off. No loot, but very little damage.

Encounter 17: Coils and Coils of Fun

The next chamber reveals four enormous snakes coiled around pillars in a dank, moss-ridden hall. Recognizing immediately that half of them are constrictors and the other two are vipers, Saribke does the arithmatic and discerns that this could be very, very bad for Our Heroes, and ushers Mia toward a corner and readies attack actions to defend against snakes coming up and encircling them like the belts they aren't. When the snakes uncoil and... leap?... into combat, what ensues is a brutal fight where Saribke spends half the time being crushed to death while Mia throws explosions near (although sometimes at) Saribke and his serpentine captor. In the end however, Our Heroes succeed in defeating the glorified shoelaces, although Saribke came out perhaps a foot taller and a bit skinnier.

Result: Standard fight, 8 healing surges used total. Mia and Saribke root about the room and find 2 rubies. Our heroes push into the final chamber.

Encounter 18: Actually Being a Reptile Is Better Than Just Looking Like One

The next room is a large hall with a sunken, watery floor, and Yuan-Ti cavort happily in the shallows, with a hierophant doing something humbly and peacefully at an altar. Butterflies and motes of light dance in columns of soft warm light, and a harp might be heard playing. Tired of these evil shenanigans, Mia lobs fiery Graecian death on these vermin, and Saribke forcibly introduces the others to the business end of a hostile spearhead takeover. The hierophant, horrified at seeing his brethren murdered, makes a quite moving speech of indictment against his assailants and their violent, intolerant ways. Thankfully for the psyche of Our Heroes, it came out as "sssszzzsszszszsSSZsZszszs", and the hierophant fell dead face down into the muck, but not before finishing a last invocation...

From the shadowy dark corners of the room, a crocodile the size of a bus emerges to avenge the death of the snake that lovingly raised it from a tadpole... or something. It is unknown to this day whose eyes grew wider at that moment, Mia's or Saribke's, for no calipers were on hand, but the result was clear: a long encounter where Saribke and Mia ran like wimps all around the room taking potshots at the crocodile until it relented and escaped out into the swamp after a half hour of eating chunks of Our Heroes.

Result: Based on the encounter description, I would have expected the Yuan-Ti to be the bulk of the time, but they went down in three relatively easy rounds. Instead, the Crocodile was a ridiculous beast. Saribke, fleeing the whole time, still managed to be halfway inside the crocodile's mouth half of the time: the crocodile's armor was so thick that Saribke got clobbered and salivated on whenever he tried to pierce it, so Mia basically played at ranged demolition for no less than 12 turns before the croc peaced out. Both come out ragged and torn, but they level up and loot the Yuan-Ti Orphanage Charity Fund for a solid 3000gp.

Delve 5: No Lair Is Beneath Our Concern

Our Heroes do something imaginative and new: they attack a dungeon of Evil!

Encounter 13: I Really Really Really Hate Wights

Saribke and Mia stroll into the tombs, only to be beset by a trio of skeleton archers and two wights. The battle is very short, but the wights manage to steal 4 healing surges from Mia before being slain, and Saribke only manages to kill the archers in time to save Mia from dying. Mia heals up and uses up all her remaining healing. Great...

Result: Easy win, but Mia got unlucky and targetted. She has to go the rest of the encounter with no healing whatsoever...

Encounter 14: Zombies Hit Haaaaard

Saribke leads ahead of Mia by 30 feet and runs into a set of zombies and blazing skeleton archers. Tanking all the damage, Saribke gets pummelled by the zombie slams, and Our Heroes destroy the enemy only after much chicanery with kiting tactics.

Result: Punishing, but a victory. Hiding Mia from fire was hard, and Saribke really took a beating from several lucky zombie hits. So far, the encounter is going very quickly but very difficultly.

Encounter 15: Obligatory Necromancer

In the deepest part of the tomb, Our Heroes find a hulking zombie commanded by an evil necromancer. Saribke and Mia quickly kill the zombie, but it rises again thanks to the necromancer. Going to Plan B, Saribke and Mia run all around the room harassing the necromancer, but the zombie manages to corner Mia and kill her outright: not unconscious, but cold dead. Enraged, Saribke does some exceptional positioning and usage of techniques to kill the necromancer, and shortly overcomes the hulking zombie. After snatching 1000gp from the necromancer and a pair of Rings of Brotherhood (a healing item), Saribke carries Mia out of the tomb, and pays for a Raise Dead ritual to be performed on her.

Result: Saribke and Mia use all their action points to good effect, but Mia is simply too hurt from having no healing this Delve to survive a strong attack from the zombie hulk. The necromancer was annoying and almost ended the party. This delve only barely paid for itself, and the only good thing that happened was that the duo levelled up. My least favorite delve so far: healing surge removal is a death sentence for my team!

Delve 4: Gnoll Big Deal

Our Heroes are assigned to clear out another cult location, in the spirit of religious intolerance. Death to the Gnoll Cult of Azkabam!

Encounter 10: Slippery Slope

Saribke and Mia are wandering in the cold underground catacombs of St. Coro's church when they stumble upon a thin chasm blocking entry to a large room, where gnolls stand ready to defend their hideout. Leaping over the chasm, Our Heroes charge into battle, and are able to catch the gnolls off guard with their incredible speed. The gnolls trigger a mechanical trap, causing the room to begin to fill with fast moving drifts of snow, in the vain hope of slowing Our Heroes down. The three gnoll guards are promptly wiped out, and Our Heroes rush up the stairs into the body of the hideout!

Result: Straightforward victory. The trap would have been formidable and perhaps tossed Mia and Saribke into the chasm, but between Saribke's teleporting initial attack and Mia's ability to teleport whenever a marked foe fell, the two handily stayed near the gnolls the whole time.

Encounter 11: Scuffle Hustle

Bursting into the main hangout area of the hideout, Our Heroes are greeted by four hyenas, two gnoll warriors, and a gnoll sniper. Saribke and Mia get the first strike in, and focus on the stronger gnolls. When the gnoll sniper takes a shot at Saribke, Saribke teleports all the way across the room and gets to grips trying to stop the sniper's exceptional marksmanship. Mia, left alone on the other side of the room, switches to killing hyenas in order to gain an immediate teleport and concealment bonus, making her way away from the threat of two gnoll warriors and their dogs towards Saribke. The sniper dead and Our Heroes reunited, the two make a stand in the corner of the room and narrowly fend off the gnoll warriors. After a bloody melee, the room is quiet, with only the sound of a cackling laugh from the room beyond. Our Heroes see a statue of a tentacled monstrosity, and Mia notices a compartment in it. In it is discovered a tidy sum of gold and a blob of what appears to be shiny spiderweb. Withdrawing the blob, it explodes, covering and merging with her clothes and starts shining very brightly: a Scintillating enchantment!

Result: Difficult bloody win. Our heroes get 600 gold and Mia gets a Scintillating +2 enchantment for her clothes. I suppose that's a good kind of enchantment for women's apparel to have.

Encounter 12: Echoes of R'lyeh

Making their way into the next chamber, Our Heroes encounter a tall Gnoll with a skull mask, flanked by 3 of his elite archers, with a yawning hole in the middle of the room. Growling some fierce sounding retort, the Gnoll Master raises a halberd againts Saribke and the two begin a duel as the Archers and Mia shoot at each other. Taking care to avoid the pit in the center, Mia and Saribke engage in a disciplined defense, picking apart the Gnoll Master and scattering the archers over the course of a minute. The Gnoll Master goes down after a fierce polearm duel with Saribke, and only one archer remains standing beneath the onslaught of Mia's powers. The last archer is slain, and the room begins to shake and rumble: a black tentacled mass floats out of the pit!

The slow, levitating mass catches Saribke off guard, grabs him, electrocutes him, and throws the nearly-dead body into the pit! A horrified Mia foregoes assailing the abyssal monster, hooks a grappling hook onto the end of her coil of rope, sprints towards the monster, and flings herself into the pit, the grappling hook holding fast against the rim of the hole as she quickly repels down to the dark chamber below. Saribke, clinging to life, is revived via Mia's frantic attempts to aid him, just in time for the hulking monstrosity to float down into the chamber, lit only by Mia's glowing garb. What followed was a highly-disciplined mobile defense, where dashing in and out of the entity's grasp eventually gave Our Heroes a hard-won victory, both near death when the shadowy blob of tentacles seized up and collapsed in a pile of dark goo. The gnolls' god was slain! Our duo collapse in exhaustion, but soon poke around the lair for treasure: none is found. The two climb up Mia's rope and leave.

Result: Very close call. Saribke was nearly killed outright between the three attacks and the fall damage, but Mia managed to pull him through with a lucky Heal roll. Once in the larger room beneath the well, they were able to maneuver enough to survive the Level 9 Elite. The light from the Scintillating clothes she had just received was actually very useful in the pitchblack room!

Analysis

The duo are a formidable force, and are indeed roughly equivalent to a 4-person party due to their damage output. However, the fact that they have half the hit points means that any one of them going unconscious is a crisis occurance. Should they fall to a swarm rather than a large solo creature, it is hard to see how they can reliably survive, particularly if Saribke's crowd control is lost. Mia has a useful 'escape' ability (teleport 3 and gain concealment) when she's hurt, used heavily in Encounter 11, means she's usually less likely to die than Saribke, who is a damage magnet. I think I will have Mia use her next few level ups to help the duo's survivability, and Saribke will try to put out more damage.

Delve 3: Storming the Cult of Gessank

A dark evil is brewing in the middle of the city of Savista, and Our Heroes have been contracted by the Clanmaster Savista to clear out a suspected den of abhuman brutes in the slums. Confident, Mia and Saribke go to the large abandoned granary building to do Massive Yet Sanctioned Harm.

Encounter 7: Really Just Kind of Unfair

Saribke and Mia burst through the door and encounter two fire beetles and three ork berserkers, the area being lit up solely by the beetles' ambient light. The fire beetles are made to abruptly give up the ghost, plunging the room back into darkness. Doing their best, the orks charge Our Heroes, but are forced to swing wildly in the dark, and the only blow that could have hit missed Saribke by a wide margin. Mia breaks a sunrod, lighting up the place, and the duo dispatch an ork. Then, stuffing the sunrod back into her leather satchel, plunges the room back into utter darkness. Our heroes then cunningly move about in the dark. The orks, unable to find their torches, are one by one eliminated via this tactic.

Result: Utter victory. Saribke harries the orks enough to keep them from reaching a door to let in moonlight, and so he and Mia emerge unharmed.

Encounter 8: Rude Dinner Guests

Deeper in the complex, Saribke and Mia encounter a dining room full of Orks enjoying an innocent repast. What ensues is a surprisingly straightforward tactical scenario where Saribke repeatedly throws the entire dinner party back while Mia pings bursts of eldritch power and alchemical fire at them. The fire is particularly effective, toasting several of the more flammable guests. Our Heroes get some light wounds from the sheer number of reeling orks, but emerge quickly victorious.

Result: Straightforward victory, with no particularly crazy events. Saribke plays his standard bodyguard role and keeps the horde of minions from ganging up too much on him and Mia. Mia uses a batch of Alchemist's Fire she whipped up to great effect, resulting in only a bloodied status for our Duo. 4 healing surges expended.

Encounter 9: Comeuppance

Going away from the dining hall, Our Heroes walk into the barracks, where two ork berserkers, a dire wolf, and a Hulking Athletic Ork Chieftain +1 lie in wait, and Our Heroes are caught off guard. Surviving a merciless onslaught, Saribke and Mia finally are able to muster a response, although both are bloodied. In a frenzy of activity (4 bonus actions used, with all dailies expended!), the assailants are buffeted across the room and the Ork Chieftain is bloodied and thrown prone (Saribke), with a host of ugly curses placed on him by Mia. Another furious round of action later, and the Chieftain is laid low inciting a bit of hope for Our Heroes, but the berserkers and the wolf are fierce opponents and manage to separate Mia and knock her to the gates of Death. Killing the wolf, Saribke rushes to her side and fends off the two berserkers while Mia musters the will to survive. In a tense two rounds, Saribke manages to kill one of the berserkers, but Mia slips closer and closer to death. Finally killing the last Ork, Saribke administers to Mia's wounds, and she stabilizes. With a sigh of relief, Our Heroes survive and level up!

Result: Incredibly difficult, by-the-skin-of-my-teeth victory. Making up for the ease of the first two encounters, the final room had few defensible locations, and enough obstacles to impede our mobile heroes. The Chieftain was a level 8 Elite Brute, and did so much harm that when he finally died, the remaining opponents had enough advantage on Mia and Saribke to be formidable threats. Mia almost failed all her saves against death, which would have ended my little Solitaire D&D experiment for now. Thankfully, our heroes attain Level 4, a pretty awesome level! (New feat, attribute bonuses, and such)

Delve 2: Against Petty Lords

Heading into a village, our heroes find that a band of goblins have placed themselves as local rulers, living fat off tributes from the local gnomes. In return for access to the local gnome artificier's stock of minor magic goods, Saribke and Mia agree to carry out a frontal assault on the goblin's tower. Brazenly, they knock down the front door!

Encounter 4: Broken Card Game

Therein, no less than a dozen goblins and a big hobgoblin are engaged in various card and gambling games. Tables are quickly overturned and daggers withdrawn, and all parties get involved in a brawl near the door, with Saribke keeping as many as possible at bay while Mia plunks the Hobgoblin. The goblins go down pretty quickly, but the hobgoblin is a big brute that doesn't go down until all the furniture is broken to splinters: Mia and Saribke confuzzle him with attacks of opportunity and flanking until he falls to the ground dead.

Result: Heroes win pretty decisively, although Mia and Saribke get a bit wounded. Saribke 8 HP, Mia 13 HP. 7 Healing surges used.

Encounter 5: Up the Spiral Staircase

Starting up the inside of the hollow round tower, our heroes find themselves underattack from above, forcing them to charge up the stairs several floors to reach their first set of skeletal assailants. Saribke dispatches them quickly, and Mia fruitlessly flings blasts at the snipers above. Pressing the charge, Saribke makes an incredible leap across the tower, pulling himself up with his arms to quickly dispatch one of the dismayed snipers. Mia rushes up the stairs and kills a second, but not before Saribke has vaulted further to take out another. Another decisive rush, and all the snipers are dealt with.

Result: Straightforward victory. Saribke suffered the brunt of the shots, but never hit Bloodied status. Saribke 26 HP, Mia full HP.

Encounter 6: The Goblin Boss and Bodyguard

Scrambling to the summit of the tower, Saribke and Mia come out into a room with a broad open balcony, the railing crumbled away. Opposite the balcony, a Goblin Boss, his bodyguards, and two dire wolves snarl and, confident in their strength, hurl headlong towards our heroes. Mia and Saribke a bit surprised, they edge towards the open ledge and get attacked first by the wolves as the goblins ready their weapons and charge. However, in possibly the most amazing combo I've ever pulled off in a roleplaying game, Saribke swaps location with the goblin boss, and uses his concussive defense to hurl all but one of the wolves off the top of the tower in an epic sweep of a glaive. Falling to their deaths, the boss and his coterie are dispatched before they can even get strikes in! The remaining wolf is easily crushed by Mia's eldritch blasts, and the tower is cleared!

Result: Dominating victory. Saribke took a total of 9 damage, and killed 4 full-featured monsters in a single hit. The boss's treasure contained 410 gold, a hearty sum!

Analysis
Helped incredibly by terrain and the ability to funnel enemies effectively, this delve went particularly well, the main challenge being the hobgoblin on the first floor. The summit of the tower was a hilarious occurance, mostly caused by Mia luring the last group away from perhaps more sound locations. Getting lucky, Mia wasn't hurt by the wolves, and Saribke was perfectly placed to knock the entire encounter out the window. Defenestration! The local gnome artificier gifted a Lifedrinker Glaive +1 to Saribke, and Mia was able to get a Pact Blade +1, so she should be a bit more accurate now. Along with a couple healing potions, this turned out to be a fruitful outing. I am concerned about our heroes' ability to deal with multiple, hard-hitting monsters though: reliance on a single healing surge within each encounter might end up being insufficient from keeping Saribke alive, and once he falls Mia is likely to be quickly killed without his deflective defense. I will throw in a small Skill Challenge before the next Delve for a few more experience points for the two: they are shy of 3rd level by a mere 50 points.

Delve 1: Fighting Brigands

Saribke: Human Battlemind, using glaive and speed to toss enemies tumbling back.
Mia: Half-Elf Warlock, blasting enemies from a range with eldritch power.

First Encounter
Our heroes are travelling along in the desert when ambushed by a cadre of kobold slingers atop a rock outcropping. In a devastating stroke, they all hammer Saribke with sling stones, bloodying him immediately. Mia reacts by blasting two of the kobolds apart with a blast, while Saribke stirs into action, charging up the outcropping in time to hobble an assailant while forcing four other kobolds to escape Saribke's arcing glaive.

Three of the taller kobolds hurl magical slingstones against Saribke in panic to the charge, although their aim faltered. The remaining kobolds jumped into melee against him, doing significant damage. Mia runs closer, hurling blasts into the froth. Saribke, near death and furiously dismembering his assailants, jumps off the rock outcropping to Mia.

Taking their cue, the kobolds turn attention to Mia, to disastrous effect. In response, she blasts two of the taller kobolds, and Saribke charges back in a daring effort to turn the tide. Luck on our hero's side, the kobolds are reduced to one tall kobold, which is promptly finished off by a blast from Mia. Our heroes catch their breath and heal up a bit (4 healing surges each!).

Result: Heroes barely win. Saribke with 2 HP, Mia with 4. 13/21 healing surges left.

Second Encounter
Descending into a cave entrance found in the rock outcropping, our heroes find themselves entering a small, dark ruin. Using a sunrod from Mia's bag, a group of well equipped kobolds are revealed! Saribke leaps into action, with Mia targetting a shaman-garbed kobold further within the ruined hall. The battle is pitched but quick, with Saribke using the glaive to disperse the kobolds to gain attacks of opportunity. Mia and the shaman kobold get into a ranged spellcasting duel, with Mia using a fey blind spell to win the challenge. The battle is incredibly pitched, with the well armored kobolds using flanking attacks and the shaman using blast spells. Our heroes heal up a bit (another 8 surges used).

Result: Heroes scrape a win. Saribke with 5 HP, Mia with 10. 7/21 healing surges left.

Third Encounter

Carefully inching down into the deepest part of the ruin, our heroes run into an audience room where a young white dragon holds court over 10 kobold supplicants. Forewarned by the sounds of earlier battle, the kobolds move quickly to attack. However, Saribke is quick and dives into the fray, cutting down 3 before the kobolds pile on in a huge cluster of melee. Mia blinds one kobold that snuck behind Saribke, saving her ally's life: the kobolds do huge amounts of damage to lightly-armored Saribke, and any extra flanking surely would have been the end, since the young white dragon promptly breaths icy jets of cold into the melee, knocking Saribke to 5 HP and destroying 3 of its own kobolds. Reacting swiftly to the development, Mia lands an incredible critical hit, taking the Dragon from fresh to bloodied in a single massive stroke (32 damage!).

Saribke deals with 2 more kobolds, and trips the dragon. The remaining 2 kobolds keep striking at Saribke, hurting him more. The dragon launches into an enraged fury, biting and clawing at Saribke, but in its haste only lands glancing scratches. Mia responds by finishing off the dragon with another great set of hits. Saribke quickly finishes off the remainding kobolds, and the halls go quiet.

Results: Heroes win! Saribke has 6 HP, and Mia is unharmed. 200 gold is found, as well as a suit of Mithral Scale Armor +1 (for Saribke... 13 AC was waaaaay too low: 20 AC much better!). Both level up.

Analysis
Surprisingly effective duo, considering that they were only level 1 and didn't take an extended rest. The first two encounters Mia was consistently a great ranged blaster, dealing well with the stronger enemies in each encounter. However, this focus on the stronger enemies left Saribke alone to deal with the hordes of minions and fighters. With only 13 AC, there was essentially a whole set of freebie shots from minions, building up into huge amounts of damage: Saribke had 40HP, but regularly took 20~ damage after the first enemy turn. Thankfully, Saribke could reliably dish out multiple hits each round, and used a special attack heavily, shoving enemies 4 squares away. Both heroes performed quite well considering, and the Mithral Scale armor bodes well for their chances in the future. The extra cash will likely go towards buying Mia an implement to improve her attacks.

Running Solitaire D&D

I've decided I'd like to actually use the various 4e Dungeons & Dragons books I brought back out to Boston with me by playing a few solitaire games. The plan is to run as many of the small adventures in the Dungeon Delves book until I die. The book has tactics and monster stats handy for each encounter, so should be easier to run for myself than randomly generating a dungeon myself.

An interesting bit is that I'm too lazy to run umpteen monsters at the same time as a full party of adventurers. So, instead of running 4 player characters, I will be running 2! I'm also too lazy to tweak the encounters every time to account for my tiny party: instead, I'm giving my adventurers two initiatives: this will let them do their thing twice each round. No extra hit points, no extra action points, and half the variety of accessible powers will still make this quite a challenge :)

Last night, I ran two of three encounters in the first level delve: I'll write up the delve when I finish the third boss encounter. So far, it has been narrow victories with clinging-to-life-ed-ness.