4e – Pool of Radiance

The paragon tier campaign is moving apace and we have now acquired two of the five hearts we need to move us into the epic tier campaign. Having also achieved 14th level, our powers have grown and we have gathered some extra magic items. I particularly like how the powers of these act as extra resources in terms of daily, encounter and at will powers to be used. None of the conserving charges in your wand that old additions involved.

Sunday’s adventure involved the start of a campaign into the underdark, plunging us into a massive chasm in the earth and meeting up with the pacifistic mushroom people. This incidentally caused a lot of humour, partly instigated by me so I apologise for that, as it was a struggle to take them seriously. These mycanoids were to guide us towards the Pool of Radiance.

On the way to the mycanoids, we passed a series of skill challenges that culminated in a fight with three large humanoids and a very cool looking spider! Read the pro-monster biased DM’s report here. One ominous aspect of this fight was the river and the continual dunking into the water, the DM has discovered how to use terrain against us!.

At the mycanoid's territory, we met a recurring character, Alias Windstrom, who seems to have done us harm but I can’t remember why exactly. He belongs to an order of the Transcendental Enquiry and they appear opposed to us because they are after the same thing as we are, the hearts. Not totally clear how all this plays out and how Artemis (the ranger) relates to this, but as this is his spotlight episode I’m hoping it will become clearer as we go along. Anyway, in our own usual style, we betrayed his presence to his enemy and will deal with the consequences of this when we return from the pool.

At the pool we met a beholder in 4e for the first time. May we have a long wait before we encounter one again. They were scary in 3rd edition, they are downright nasty in 4e! Not only did it get 4 standard actions in its turn but it also got an eye ray attack on you at the beginning of your turn. Serious damage was dealt out here. Couple this with a clever use of terrain and we had a fight on our hands. This particular beholder lived in a flooded cavern which was considered rough terrain (half movement) and the fighter struggled throughout to get close to it. The wizard, ranger and warlock succeeded in laying into it and I got a few good blows in before it took me out. Once again the pro-monster reporting of the action in the DM’s blog is here.

An interesting observation made on the way home was that this encounter would only have worked in 4e, with its miniatures, movement by squares and tactical positioning.

Just in case you are wondering, yes we do plagiarise a lot from other sources and twist them to our own ideas!