CoD 1: Session 08: Beach Search

 Pre-scene Notes

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Scene setup/conflict: 

Party headed out to where they had first washed up at the beach to see if they could find Stella, crabs, or necklace. It could be a wild goose chase.

No interrupt/altered scenes.

Scene: 

Yankovic was going to see if his knowledge of tracking crabs, or any coastal marine creatures were handy. However, Filli deduced that as the young noble with the necklace would have wanted to find a secluded spot for her assumed rendezvous, looking at those types of places would be more ideal. (Filli with the nat20 Investigation roll this time and not Yankovic). In addition, having further visited where they had first washed up ashore, Filli now deduced that Stella had not fallen off and had probably gotten off the boat into the island before they had woken up. He hoped she had not ventured inland instead of making it to Cavesmuth.

Combined with Yankovic’s crab tracking skills, the party without much effort found a colony of crabs that Filli also believed the noble lady could have had her outing, considering the distant and accessibility from Cavesmuth. 

They saw a great many giant crabs there they could get meat from, but a giant crab king was in the middle of them on the beach. The crab king however seemed sluggish, its eyes seemed to have been damaged, and it was probably hurt and just recovering at the moment. There were however up to twenty other crabs with it, and considering the open space, the party may avoid the combat with the crab king altogether if they wanted to lure out some crabs alone to finish the crab meat mission. It was however more than likely bringing back crab king meat would give more fame and gold for the party. No necklaces were seen, obviously, even if it was amongst the sands. It could have washed away long ago even.

The party considered stealth as an option, considering the crabs’ eyes were not known to be the best according to Yankovic. He also knew any aggression within the crab’s range of vision they would mobilise and probably get aggressive, as they seemed to be protecting their injured king. 

This was a relatively simple encounter to think up, as it was to be pure combat. I was just thinking of a way for the party to choose whether they wanted to play it safe or take risks for a bigger reward. The king crab was obviously the boss, which normally would be too strong for a party of level 1s, so I injured him to reduce his stats and vision. Thinking vision, I used an aura around the grunt crabs (who all by default had 30 feet blindsight per standard monster statblock) so if it was attacked within another’s vision, only then would it swamp the party. I had put a lot of crabs around, but as none of them had ranged attack options, I had thought the party stood a chance of eliminating them all. It would be that if the party killed the king crab as well, they would open it to find it swallowed the noble’s necklace, which would have awarded them for the additional risk they had taken.  I had also avoided a mass rush by splitting the crab grunts into three groups with three different initiatives, then rolling a d4 for each group to move on each turn, pursuing any PCs that went into their range of vision. However, the combat did not go as planned…

Map by SaltTheEarth. Take note of the large beach space to the right…

The party decided to pick off the outer crabs one by one, and were succeeding surprisingly well. Even to the point where Yankovic was almost changing his mind on Zar as he speared another crab with one throw of the javelin. This was until Filli got over-zealous and overkilled one with a Firebolt that exploded, causing all the nearby crabs to be alerted. This included the injured King crab and they all rushed the party at once. 

As they were one-shoting the crabs silently, I’d thought I made this fight too easy, and as Filli rolled a nat20, I’d thought I would just set all enemies on the party to increase difficulty.

Now in heat of battle, the other two finally saw Weird Elf as a fanatic Xanthia follower. Despite being surrounded, Yankovic got in between Zar and Filli, and screamed a Cry of Xanthia spell with his holy symbol of the Red Queen held high in his hand. With flash of red from his necklace, an eruption of white flames shot flared in blasts from beneath two the two targetted crabs, incinerating both in holy flames. He quipped they should charge extra for having partially cooked them. Zar commented to Filli that was how Xanthia followers all were: in battle, they were as bad as drug addicts. 

Take Cry of Xanthia as just the Word of Radiance spell, except instead of holy, the damage is fire. This change was not for favour, it was just because I had somehow got  the Word of Radiance and Sacred Flame spells mixed up. I still had not noticed at this point, and only later did I realise looking back that Word of Radiance won’t set anything aflame I had to basically homebrew a spell to combine the two. I guess this is part of Soloplay, no one can point out these things if you miss them. But also, easy enough to retcon and come up with something original if required, the later much better for novelization.

Considering Yankovic killed two of his own, the King Crab lurched forward ignoring his injuries and went for two claw attacks to try and grapple him, towering over his other crab kin under his gigantic size. Yankovic was however in his zealous state and managed to dodge both strikes, although the wind against his cheeks told that if any of them had landed, he would be down in one shot.

At this point, the party heard noises from the other side of the beach. A haggard crew of pirates, or rather, just shipmen appeared. They screamed they had rediscovered the crabs and was going to finally have a real meal. All three of the party recognised them immediately as the crew from the Blue Horizon. 

This dodge was when I got overconfident at my own party at the end of round 3 of combat. I’d thought they needed to get more enemies if the party was just going to brush past the King Crab. So an idea came to me and I asked Mythic whether the King Crab was injured by the Blue Horizon crew, as they were the only other enemies I had previously prepared. I rolled an Exceptional Yes. 

There were seven of them, excluding the previous captain of course, but one of them seemed to be their new leader. Three were armed with crossbows while another three behind the leader looked to be midshipmen. The new leader seemed to have stolen the captain’s coat. The rest were also in varying degrees of torn clothing that made the party believe they did not have a good time after their departure. 

I thought I’d rolled a d10 for the number of enemies and got a high 7… A bit worried at this point but thought pirate grunts would be fine. So I rolled for scouts with the D7 - got 3x scouts with crossbows, the max number that were previously on the ship. Then I rolled a D4 for midshipmen - 3x midshipmen. Only one crew slot left, so I had to have it as the new mutiny captain (and I rolled yes on Mythic when I asked the question…). I’d also rolled after this whether the Blue Horizon crew were happy to meet the party, as there was a chance they did not recognise them, but a nat20 history check meant the crew would be squaring in aggression.  

Seeing the party, the new captain recognised the three immediately, screaming those were the ones who set the ship on fire and murdered the old captain. He ordered the attack for both the party stealing their crab meat and leaving them stranded, and the crew rushed into the fry. 

Zar seeing the crossbows, tried to at least take out the giant crab that was on them first, but his longsword clanged off its shell, his bad luck once again nullifying his earlier feats. Filli realised their predicament and Catapulted a flask of oil as projectile into the King Crab, splashing flammable oil all over it with the force of the spell damaging it greatly. Demonstrating a great battle potential, Yankovic again tried to recruit Filli to the church, Filli again declining politely and promptly, as another onslaught from the smaller crabs continued on Yankovic and Zar at the front line. 

Both were able to parry the smaller crabs’ attacks, Yankovic tried to call forth with his words the Xanthia’s flames again, but this time only one of the crabs were caught. The King Crab practically just shrugged the spell off, even more angry, and did two sweeping claw swipes that actually went for Zar. Zar in his attempt to dodge got grabbed by two of the smaller crabs and was now immobilised. 

There were quite a few misses here but combing multiple turns, especially where the initiative order of enemies and PCs were adjacent, proved to make the description of the battle more interesting and flexible. This was one of the main things I’d found with Soloplay that otherwise I may not be able to write out as dynamic a battle scene. 

To make matters worst, the pirate scouts were now within range and shot their crossbows. One caught Zar and critically wounded him, while he was still being pinned down by two crabs. His longsword disposed of one nearby crab, eyeing the midshipmen with their sabres that were advancing ever closer. The new captain even went around the huddle with the King Crab, and saw Filli in the backline as his target. Filli chanced his luck and in response threw one of his nets at the captain to try and eliminate him from battle. This new captain seemed much more competent than the old one and dodged deftly without a stop to his advance. However Xanthia seemed to want to recruit Filli as well, because as Yankovic was already surrounded by attacking crabs or dead carapaces, other crabs failed for any attacking humans they could reach, one of which managed to temporarily get in the way of the Captain’s tracks. This was the same for two midshipmen who tried to take a shortcut to cross a gap at the beach, and a crab ambushed them from the waters. 

In both journaling of the Soloplay or novelization, it was different than in the midst of an actual DND campaign in that the reasons for a PC to make an action or do an attack actually has as much time as you want to clarify. Sometimes the motivations for an attack showed more of the character or might even be more interesting than the dice outcomes. 

Yankovic knew the situation was getting dire and called for Xanthia’s aid with a cry, lighting up five feet about him in scared white flames. Not only did three surrounding crabs lit up in flames, but the Crab King caught fire from the oil previously broken onto him by Filli’s initial spell attack.

On the side of the failing Crab King however, Zar fell to the ground as another crab jumped onto him and pinned him down. His Orcish Relentlessness however made him growl, remembering his that night imprisoned in the cupboard awaiting his death before he had found the rusty sword. An unnoticed green glow surrounded the rusty blade on his belt as Zar growled and with a howl stood up in defiance. True to his unlucky self though, the aflame Crab King swiped with his claw hammer and knocked Zar back down unconscious. 

The Orcish Relentlessness race feature for half orcs in DND would probably let Zar do a bit more dramatics than others. If it was not clear up to now, most DND abilities/spells/features I would put in with capital letters. At this point, I was really worried our hero’s party will be wiped out, as I could not find a logical way to divert the Crab King’s attention to the crew instead. As a GM, I would not like to fudge rolls, but avoiding attacking the PC doing saving throws I think was definitely advised. In addition, I tried my best to get the crabs and crew to cross paths where possible, which I thought was logically as the crabs would go for the moving humans than a dead one.

The Crab King used its other claw to lift Zar up from the ground in rage as the fire on his back dissipated with the oil having burnt up, but not before having dealt damage to the point the Crab King knew it was on its last knees and was adamant to take someone down with it. 

The midshipmen took a bit of time but disposed of the crabs halting their advance, but nothing were stopping their crossbowmen. A hail of crossbolts from the scouts rained down by Yankovic, whose eyes seemed to be glowing red from his last devastating attack amongst the dead creatures about him, none scathing him whether really by the power of Xanthia’s protection or otherwise. 

The Captain made short work on the crab holding him back and turned back to Filli. Filli’s battlefield inexperience showed, seeing the Captain’s brutal slash that split the crab, he fumbled a shot of the net with a Catapult spell, which the Captain dodged with ease. The captain even had time to do a slashing motion on his neck, as Filli started feeling dizzy with the magical energy he had depleted. Back at home, he had never felt this tired even if he had stayed up all night reading books in the library, but magical exhaustion was certainly a new sensation he did not have taste for. 

Basically this translated to Filli was out of spell slots. As an author, a description of the magic system would be mandatory and can get as creative as you like, but this is another instance having the DND magic and combat system done a lot of heavy lifting in order to just get on with the adventure.

Yankovic as if in a trance, gathered the bloodlust surrounding him, spun his way around the monstrous crab and Cry of Xanthia again. “Xanthia had seen your fight. He is entertained. Now go be his pet in the afterlife.”

Despite the dramatisation, none of the targets caught fire to the same trick and the white flames evaporated harmlessly in the air. Yankovic, brought down to earth, lamented, “Man, Zar’s bad luck may be rubbing off on me.”

His actions attracted that of all the crabs to relent from Zar a while though and they directed their attacks on the moving target mercilessly, scrambling over and under the King Crab. Fumbling parries from the smaller crabs, the King Crab finally was able to latch onto Yankovic with its other claw and lifted him up like it did Zar. Just as he thought he was done for, another rain of crossbolts from the crossbowmen, whether aimed at him or not, fell onto the King Crab. With a vengeful howl, the King Crab fell, releasing the unconscious Zar and Yankovic into sand with a deafening thud, sand spewing in all directions. In a bizarre turn of events, the two were saved by the Blue Horizon crew in the end.

The midshipmen finally got to the action and rushed forward with renewed vigour after the King Crab fell, only the last of the crabs remaining, while one midshipman managed to slash at Yankovic  while the others finished off the sea creatures to make the battlefield a humanoids-only fight. Yankovic parried the incoming scimitar just in time, giving a glance at Zar’s still unconscious body, needing a ally against the new wave of enemies. Before he could approach to help, the crab adjacent to him took a swipe and Yankovic went down. 

Not far away, the Captain with one slash went past Filli’s spear and hacked at his scale mail. Taking the brunt of the force, his father’s old scale mail clanged in agony and he was inevitable pushed back many steps with his feet sunken into the sand. Filli having seen his fallen comrades heard a voice in his head telling him to run. Turn and flee. Just a tactical retreat. Even Weird Elf would understand, coming from the Red Princess sect. It was strategy. The Captain jeered and struck again, Filli only able to defend the onslaught with his shield as the Captain’s spittle rained with his attacks.

Note at this point, it had been two turns and bot the Captain and Filli already missed. But as it added to nothing and in an author’s POV, the action description flowed a lot better like this, I bypassed those as parries and exchanges. For Soloplay of course, journal whatever you feel like. 

Filli screamed to dispel his inner cowardly voice. He grabbed one of his oil bottles and cast Fire Bolt at point blank while shoving it into the Captain’s chest to ensure a hit. The explosion both seared him and the Captain, but definitely caused more harm to the Captain instead as the Fire Bolt burst. Filli could be seen having a puzzled look on this face as the Captain, severely injured, clutched his chest and fell to one knee. The captain shouted the last thing Filli heard before he was hit on the head with the butt of the Captain’s cutlass, “Capture them alive! I want them begging for mercy!”

I chanced with a Mythic roll on whether Stella would come to the rescue. It rolled a No, which I think may be for the best. This was practically a party KO as Filli himself had no way of reviving the others or take on all seven enemies himself. In a common way to avoid this, I made the enemy capture them instead of kill them. The altered scene rolled next scene however made the way this  scene ended interesting and makes more sense they got captured instead of killed.

Scene close-out: 

• Chaos factor up to 4. 
• + party thread: Killed 17 crabs and one Crab King.  
• + party thread: Escape from the 7x Blue Horizon crew 

Post-scene Notes

I feel this is basically the first real fight scene of the campaign and we're already at session 8! It was a long one though and I enjoyed the curve balls, but it shows managing 3x PCs and two waves of enemies made me miss some things. Well, we'll see where it goes.