Players and the mistakes they can make

[Grimbeorn]

Ok, today. Had a nice little tower for my party to searched. One of the players (as well as her character thanks to a good roll) realised that the people disappearing around the tower could have something to do with the family crypt, and a possible barrow wright.

The tower was just about Lake Evendim in the kingdom of Arnor. The tower hadn't been inhabited since the fall of that kingdom. So they were being very careful, and avoiding running into the barrow wright if they could, they were to there to see if any infomation about a ring which they had found on a Half Orc Sorcerer (part of the force that Sauraman terrorised the shire with). They had found the ring had once owned to the early occupunts of the tower. S

o decided to go take a look. (I nearly pointed out that after 1500 odd years of beening unhabited it was unlikely much was left). What they didn't know was a group of Orcs had taken the tower as hide out from the rangers, as it had such a bad rep, people avoided it. So the spend a good part of a day searching this tower to discover, some rusty weapons, some metal 45" arrows (but no bow for them) and not much else (totally missing the hidden doorway to the cell.

So they decided to make camp away from the tower with a big fire and double watches to spot anything coming their way. What actually happened was all of them totally missed the orc scouts finding them and the ambush being set up. The first person to notice anything was an elf of the party as a hail of arrows came into the camp. What happened next was funny. the orc charged off in the direction of the arrows, (he couldn't see the orcs that well) ran into half a dozen orc archers, who he started butchering, when another dozen orcs come up behind him. So he is now pretty much by himself all his companions are trying to deal with two other smaller groups that attacked them for the other directions (for some strange reason the orcs to the north ended up getting butchered by a group of rangers which happened to be in the area, I really dislike killing PC's off too quickly). The dwarf survived long enough for two of the party to dispatch the orcs around them, and rescue him after hearing him scream in pain (the poor dwarf had just been hit by the Orc Captain with a Great Axe (rolling double six on the damage)). The Dwarf learnt a valuable lesson, "DON'T RUN OFF BY YOURSELF IN A DARK WOOD"

[dustin]

Just reading through past messages and came across this one. Thought I would share an experience:

While running a 4th Age chronicle, I had two groups of heroes with 3 people each. In one group, I had a dwarf (modeled after Gimli), an elf (modeled after Legolas), and a female Lossoth warrior. Now the elf is the problem (and my 15 year old nephew)

Earlier in the chronicle, he was rewarded for sneaking into an orc fort through a drainage pipe and making his way to the front gate to let in an assault force. For his heroism, a local chieftan rewarded him with a priceless family heirloom-- a mithrail coat. Now the elf thinks he is invinsible.

Later in the chronicle, after marshalling an army to attack a rejuvenated Carn Dum, this trio launched an all-out assault on the fortress. While the main battle raged outside, the heroes managed to sneak into the citadel of the castle and began searching for the garrison's commander--a particularly nasty brute called a Dragon Rider (this is just one of five).

During the search, this elf got ahead of his compatriots. He came into one of the turrets and spied a lone Uruk archer laying down cover fire for his partners outside. Without even thinking, the elf charged the Uruk, taking him completely by surprise and killed him instantly. What he did not see, or take time to check out, were the other four Uruks in the same turret, which immediately attacked.

The Uruks didn't do a lot of damage to the elf. They knocked him down, but he was able to avoid their most devasting blows until the Lossoth and the Dwarf came to his rescue. After a stern warning not to do that again, the elf promises to be more careful, then immediately charges across a courtyard into another turret--and three Olog-Hai!

These he managed to avoid (after some colorful, un-Elvish expletives), by running up a stairwell that was too small for the Olog's to follow. Now, by no means has the elf learned his lesson. He runs straight into the Dragon Rider. This particular one had several advancements, including two-handed fighting, ambidextrous, and swift strike2(4 combat actions).

After a very brief melee, the elf was severely wounded. I believe the Dragon Rider won the initiative roll and proceeded to use all 5 actions on the elf, taking him from Hale to Incapasitated! He lay on the floor until the Lossoth and the Dwarf finally finished off the Dragon Rider (both of them taking some serious hits as well).

With the battle won, and some much needed rest, the heroes were able to recover from their wounds. Once they were feeling well enough to travel again, the Lossoth (who happens to be my younger sister), walked over to the elf and proceeded to slap the crap out of him for causing so much trouble! (I gave her a Corruption point, but he did have it coming!)

Later in the chronicle, during the final battle with the evil wizard, all six players were reunited. One of the other heroes was a huge great axe weilding barbarian name Urr. And Urr has no tolerance for stupidity. After the elf tried some more of his individual heroics, Urr punched him in the face and threatened to tie him up and leave him for the orcs. He settled down after that.("Urr" had just come back from Iraq.)

I guess the moral of this story is, "Don't run off--period!--and try to be a hero." Also, it's nice to know that players will keep others in line if they start getting to stupid. That way I won't have to do it.

dustin