Boss Fights!

I know my posting is sparse, but I console myself in knowing that I haven't been writing about gaming because I've been too busy playing games!

Our "group one" game happened two weeks ago and it was fantastic. Blanklee, Karl and Gertrude have continued their journey toward the Sunderforge, where they hope to destroy a fiendish artifact. They stopped off for a brief moment at a grey elf settlement, where they were to meet an an emissary of the red elves - who was waiting for them. He would escort them through the Weirdwood: the warped and haunted remains of the once great red elf forest.

Unfortunately for them, the settlement had been overrun by a band of demons summoned to hunt down the party and take Blanklee to hell. They faced off against a horde of lesser demons, defeated a fiend hunter who had been tracking them for days, helped out the remaining townsfolk and finally destroyed the demon leader, a terrible vrock by the name of Gul'tuch.

The players facing off against a group of dretches. (no dretch figs, settled for slaves)

While the game itself was fun as normal, the players made it really clear that the boss fight was the cherry on the sundae. I had done my best to build a little suspense. NPC's warned them of the vicious creature ahead, and since even the minions were no pushover, the party had some real fear running through their veins. For the first time among this group of players, I actually heard them utter, "You know, we got what we came here for, we can just leave and not mess with whatever's behind that door."

Fortunately, they decided to stay. They couldn't let this monster kill the rest of the townspeople. They buffed up with spells (something they almost never do!) and kicked in the door, steel swinging. The fight went pretty much as planned. There were two human/fiend minions in the room with the vrock; one to act as healer and the other as a diversion. Two players went after the bait while the rogue pursued the healer. Meanwhile, the Vrock began a strange and violent dance in the center of the room. As the two minions fell, the Dance of Ruin completed, blasting the room with damage and nearly destroying Alvi (the NPC cleric and unofficial group mascot) in the process. The party rallied themselves, healed their wounds and threw themselves against the creature. While they did take a fair amount of damage, a series of incredibly lucky saving throws allowed them to win the day with no casualties!

In other news, my good friend Jim -player of Blanklee- has started his own figure wall project. A few months ago I discussed my process of using old typesetting drawers to display my minis and Jim has started his own similar similar project. Below is a preview of whats to come!

At the top is a troll he just started working on. It'll look totally badass when finished.

Until next time, happy gaming!