This evening’s play included a welcome guest appearance from Canberra’s Meredith.

Play resumed with the party looking for somewhere to rest after the battle with the tower’s defenders the previous session. After some scouting they found a semi-sheltered area in the trees that offered some protection against the wind. With night falling they made camp. However barely an hour had gone by when a trio of frost beetles arrived. Despite their fatigue and battered status the party made very light work of these critters and the encounter was over swiftly.

As the battle ended the party heard the irate voice of an angry goblin shouting. A few moments later the chief of the frost goblin tribe came into view, holding two adolsecent goblins by the ear. The party listened in while the chief castigated the youngsters for disobeying him and for wasting trained beetles against a strong opponent. T

Soon the chief turned to address the party. Although the frost goblin chief was angry they party had invaded his lands and had slain a number of his warriors (session 2), he also appreciated the fact that the party had slain the white dragon that had been harassing them by demanding constant food and tribute (session 1). 

Hence the chief had a proposal – the party could choose to get rid of the so-called “blizzard bird” which had recently taken up residence nearby (and was demanding treasure and sacrifices), or they could face the goblin chief and the sixty or so warriors he had brought to the discussion. The party quickly saw the wisdom of tackling the beast. The goblins were required to deliver a sacrifice the following day, so the party took up the chief’s offer of shelter for the night.

With Timmy the Thief polymorphed to resemble a goblin female and seemingly tied to the sacrifial pole near the blizzard bird’s cave, the party took up an ambush position. When the beast (which resembled a horse-sized eagle made of ice), arrived they unleashed their attacks, however the beast soon retaliated with a vicious frost blast and the ability to teleport at will. A very tough battle ensued but the party was ultimately victorious. Treasure of 475 GP and 2 potions of healing was discovered, along with items sacred to the goblins (which they retrieved and took away). Finally there is a set of (cloth) Feedback Armor.

Feedback Armor - Crackling psychic energy cascades around you, flaring outward when you make a mental assault on a foe.
Level: 4 - Price: 840 gp - Armor: Cloth, Leather - Enhancement: +1 AC
Power (Daily * Augmentable, Psychic): Free Action. Trigger: You use a psychic power. Effect: Each creature adjacent to you takes 1d6 psychic damage and is pushed 1 square. Augment 2: The psychic damage increases to 2d6. Augment 4: The psychic damage increases to 3d6.
Published in Player's Handbook 3, page(s) 199.

Conclusion: The party had returned to the goblin cave and were restoring themselves (ie. extended rest) before going back to tackle the tower. 

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XP: Total XP for this encounter was 375+875 (combat), 250 (bonus) and 250 (story) Total 1750 or 350 for each of the five players.

• Chris: 925 (bumped to 1000)
• Pete: 1275
• Tina: 1275
• Adam: 1275
• Tom:  1085
• Xu: 190, Meredith 350

Renown points: Several players were able to cash in their bonus points, so the scores have jumped quite a bit in some cases. The vote for "Player of the Night" was inconclusive, so I gave it to Adam for good gameplay, although Tom was a close second (IMO).

• Chris - 7
• Pete - 18
• Tina - 12
• Adam - 17
• Tom - 8
• Xu - 2

The third session was the first with a replacement player, with Xu filling in for the (apparently deathly ill) Tom. Chris will be absent for the next 2-3 weeks so Xu will be probably also be filling in during that time.


Game mechanics issue: My treasure designs are geared towards the classes in PHB1 (eg the Rod of Reaving is optimal for a Warlock) and as far as I can tell no-one is playing a PHB1 character. Could all players send me (via email or via comment below) their class and race, along with a brief summary of powers being employed. This will influence my encounter and treasure design. I also expect that most players will be second level by the end of the next session, so please give some thought to levelling up.



Session summary: Things picked up right where the second session concluded, with the interrogation of the Goblin Hexer.  The Hexer's name was Grak and he revealed the following:

• There is a camp nearby with "many hands" of goblins living in it.
• The emblem around his neck was a prize taken from a dead "Red robe" (he did not disclose how the "red robe" died)

The party was able to identify the emblem as being the symbol of the Zhat Nation. 


Bliiy Blagg (Pete) insisted on releasing the goblin hexer, overruling to far more malevolent Lube (Chris) who advocated brutal extermination. Whether this will have consequences remains to be seen.


A short walk over a small hill brought the party to the entrance to the tower. The tower was encased in a cone of shimmering ice that was several feet thick. The cone rose all the way to beyond the top of the tower and resembled a "frost volcano". A plume of cold was erupting from the top of the cone - clearly the source of the bad weather affecting the region.


The party found the double doors that marked the entrance to the tower, located  near rows of many gargoyle statues. After hacking away at the ice for a few minutes they managed to get through the ice, however the moment they actually touched the tower a wave of arcane energy flowed around them, awakening the tower guardians. Four of the gargoyle statues transformed into Iron Defenders and two clay scouts emerged from the doors.


Despite a shaky start the party were able to despatch the magical defenders, with Tina being particularly effective. A quick check of the door indicated it was now magically locked, and the party has yet to investigate how to reopen it. However with Pete in pretty bad shape the party felt that an extended rest was in order, and the session concluded with the party starting to scout for somewhere to rest. The howling winds, constant snows and potentially a horde of angry goblins suggests that an extended rest might not be easily achieved...
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XP - total experience earned for the encounter was 750 combat, 100 skill challenge, 100 story. Total 950, or 190 each.

• Chris: 735 + 190 = 925
• Pete: 735 + 190 = 925
• Tina: 735 + 190 = 925
• Adam: 735 + 190 = 925
• Tom:  735
• Xu: 190

Renown points: Most people got their first card during this session. (You get a card for every 4 points). Just about every player has missed out on points they are entitled to, but it's not my job to remind them about how points are awarded. Thus far we have not had "Player of the Night" awards, but for tonight I gave it to Tina (2 points). TIna and Pete both get a new card at the start of the next session

• Chris - 7
• Pete - 9
• Tina - 8
• Adam - 6
• Tom - 6
• Xu - 2

After being interrupted by my trip to Turkey, the campaign resumed tonight with great success. Players are still arguing about which character they should play and have not yet finalised their party make-up. As a result I've make an amazingly generous ruling allowing each player until level 2 to alter their characters in any way without penalty. This won't be an ongoing thing for my campaign by the way.  However I'm sympathetic to the idea of wanting to find a character that the players can "bond" with in the long term, and we've been stuck with using pre-gens for so long that having all this freedom can be daunting at first. 

To the evening's play: After a recap we resumed at the conclusion of the battle with the White Dragon. The treasure was allocated (see previous session report) and Adam got the Amulet of Protection. Searching the cave turned up the stripped corpse of a messenger who carried a note reading "M. Keep your head down. I'll be there soon. C.M."

After camping in the shelter of the cave for the night the players awoke to find they had been joined by a bright yellow duck which refused any attempt to communicate and which could not be captured. An arcana check indicated the duck was magical in some way, but no other useful knowledge was obtained, despite the party spending a remarkable amount of time on the task.

After (eventually) giving up on duck-related investigations, the party set out eastwards, with the duck quietly waddling along behind them. After successfully negotiating a blizzard the party found their way to within sight of the tower. As they approached the tower they encountered a very large group of goblins, led by a robed goblin hexer. 

This encounter was made additionally challenging when the DM inadvertently printed out (and used) the monster stats for 8 Goblin Warriors (29 HP, 100 XP) instead of the 8 Goblin Cutters (1 HP minions, 25 XP) that he had originally designed the encounter with. This turned a basic level 2 encounter into a very hard level 6 encounter. Despite getting beaten up, the party was still victorious, and the encounter ended when they subdued the goblin leader. 

Wrap-up and Treasure: The session concluded immediately upon the subdual of the goblin leader and hence no questioning has taken place as of yet. Although not actually mentioned during gameplay, it can be reported that treasure was discovered on the goblin hexer, to the effect of 50GP, 2 potions of healing and a Rod of Reaving +1. None of the other goblins had any treasure or items of worth.
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XP - total experience earned for the encounter was 1500 combat, 400 skill challenge, 100 story and 150 bonus. Total 2150, or 430 each.

• Chris: 305 + 430 = 735
• Pete: 305 + 430 = 735
• Tina: 305 + 430 = 735
• Adam: 305 + 430 = 735
• Tom: 305 + 430 = 735

Renown points: In future the points for blog comments will be awarded in the next report. Hence Pete gets his point here (Tom doesn't as it was already awarded last time). I will actually have cards ready to hand out next week as everyone is entitled to one now.

• Chris - 5 (2 basic)
• Pete - 7 (2 basic, 1 for blog comment on previous report)
• Tina - 4
• Adam - 4
• Tom - 5 - (2 basic, 0 for a blog comment as was awarded last week.)