Reflections on a Session: 17 Sept 16

Another stats post.

• Time spent: ~5 hours
• DMing: ~2.1 hours
• Talking to players before session, Ethan chargen: 1.8 hours
• Restocking depopulated parts of dungeon: 0.5 hours
• Generating NPC stats: 0.5 hours
• Encounter tables: 0.1 hours
• No new areas mapped
• ~3 rooms restocked
• Dungeon areas explored in 2.1 hours of play:
• 1 empty
• 1 trap without treasure
• 1 lair, fought, outflanked, fled
• Game-time elapsed in dungeon: ~1 hour (6 turns)
• Random encounters checked: 1
• Random encounter checks missed: 2
• Turns spent returning to exit from further point of exploration: 1
• Party size: 10
• Scarth, Mage 2
• Aldo, Assassin 2 (KIA)
• Dora, Explorer 3
• Gertrude, War dog
• Beardwin the Optimist, Craftpriest 2
• Clever Paul (has low Int), Dwarven Delver 2? (Mortally wounded but retrieved, grudgingly loyal)
• Brynja, Bladedancer 3
• Binhildis, Paladin 1 (MIA)
• ???, Paladin 2 (MIA)
• Leitgardis, L0 normal woman (KIA)
• Mortal wounds taken: 5
• ??? the Paladin was first into the lair, surprised by a ratman and backstabbed to 0 HP.  Checked by Dr. Owl, knee damaged.  Left on the field during retreat and captured by ratmen.
• Leitgardis dropped to -100% max HP while trying to carry Paladin out, left on the field during retreat.  Wounds checked by ratmen, both arms severed, bled to death, devoured.
• Binhildis dropped to -1 HP while covering Leitgardis' retreat, left on the field.  Wounds checked by ratmen, gruesome scarring but 1HP, taken captive.
• Aldo went into a building to avoid ratman javelins and/or retrieve the paladins, rolled a 1 on damage.  Cut down by five ratmen inside, abandoned during retreat.  Checked by ratmen, DOA, devoured.
• Clever Paul followed Aldo in, missed his one shot, stabbed by ratmen.  Retrieved by Beardwin under cover of Sanctuary (first time we've seen this spell used).  Knee damaged, RL&L'd, now followed by an imp.
• Loot recovered: None
• Lost Boots of Elvenkind carried by Aldo
• Lost Greatsword +3 carried by Also
• Lost Potion of Heroism carried by Binhildis
• Ended up spending 840 gp for RL&L, Cure Disease, and healing herbs.
• Traps triggered: 1 (after discovery, but they were in a hurry)
• XP from monsters: ~84 for ratmen killed
• A net loss in XP for the party after casualties.
• About averages out last session's excellent haul.

Rough session.  But they put a fair dent in the ratman lair, and now they know where it is.

I am happy with the level of tactical intelligence employed today; last session's man-spiders should've retreated instead of engaging the numerically-stronger party, and the Delirious Crusaders the party betrayed weren't exactly operating at full capability.  Ratmen retreated from the choke-point the party decided to hold, and circled back around to strike their flank and rear via alternate routes.  Given proximity of lair to dungeon entrance and frequency of adventuring parties, rapid prepared responses seem very reasonable.  When the ratmen came under fire from the Explorer, they retreated back out of LOS rather than just sitting in the open.  They could've popped back out to throw javelins at the party as they were hauling Paul the Clever's comatose form over a rope bridge, but decided not to risk more casualties.  The Explorer is probably a priority for them in future engagements (but AC7 is hard for 1HD monsters to deal with, and she is hard to surprise).

If I'd been applying lessons in combat psychology from Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory, the ratmen who killed the paladins and Aldo should've gone into forward panic and continued to advance.

Important follow-on question: what is ratman ransom procedure?  Gold is nice and all, but you can't really buy safety.  Does it make sense for them to just hold the hostages as insurance against attack by the party?  Something to think about.