For our third week spent under the blistering sun of Athas only three members of the group were able to make it. Rather than try to scale down the encounter so drastically I opted to have each player run two characters. Though it took a round or two for them to get into the flow of it I think it went fairly smoothly.
This week the group once again made it through the skill test with relative ease. However Shikirr failed a perception check and fell for a rather unconvincing mirage which led to a tumble into a patch of thorns and a minus one to all his defenses for the remainder of the encounter. After hauling him out the party traveled onward and found themselves in a small clearing sheltered from the storm by large boulders, and in the center of this rock enclosed oasis stood a single large cactus heavy with fruit.
A few checks by my suspicious and rather cautious players led to them deciding the fruit was safe and they quickly harvested it. And then of course the trap was sprung by the goblins hiding on the rock tops. It’s nice to see they have gotten into the habit of seeing everything as a danger in this new world, they’ve gotten into the spirit of Dark Sun.
Now an interesting aside, in the old Dark Sun goblins were an extinct race. A legend that no longer existed. Having them show up here was a surprise and so I explained that the party wasn’t sure what they were but that they’d heard legends of such creatures. I’m interested in if the official books out in August will explain why these creatures are back on Athas.
But back to the encounter. The party seeing that these small little creatures looked a little desperate attempted to intimidate them at first, with little luck, and so battle was joined. The group of goblins had the high ground and consisted of some archers, a pair of melee minions, and two casters along with a drake. The rocks themselves were covered in a bramble of thorny vines that restricted movement and could inflict damage should a party member stop in it. All in all a nasty little place to fight.
As for how it went. A distinct lack of ranged attacks led to an initial run up the rocks by the elf, which turned nasty. He managed to take out the two minions, who also happened to explode on death, and then fell off the rocks and nearly died, the Avenger used both healing spells getting him back on his feet. Yuka got bored and so used Shikirr as a ranged attack, tossing him up on the rocks to deal with an archer while Barcan and Jarvix spent their time hurling spells. In the end other then the near loss of the ranger the group prevailed with the final bloodied caster finally surrendering.
Things like Yuka throwing his teammate up the rocks are why I love D&D. The social aspect and the creative ways people deal with things is always a blast. Now hopefully we’ll actually have all six players show up next week since it should be an interesting encounter both because of the foes and because they will finally starting getting some serious story progression.