If you missed last weeks wrap up, you can check it out here.
Our giveaway wraps up this week! The most interesting recap in the comment section will win 2 Fortune Card booster packs!

This week in encounters, Miracle Grow run amok!Remember, spoilers ensue!

At the Table - This week a new NPC is introduced to the party. Faldyra, a scholarly female elf, wanted to pick some herbs and bark from a copse of trees they could see in the distance. Malgram didn’t think it was the best idea so it was left to the gang to stand guard over her while she collected her clippings. Would this be a boring week of landscaping for the party?

Joining in on the fun this week were two new characters that emerged from the red-shrouded “wagon of undesirables.” They were a Dwarf named Rasputin who was guarding the troublemakers and Keira, a female elf that knew her way around the seedier parts of Hammerfast. Keira was one of the first to regain her wits, and luckily for Rasputin one of Malgram’s rangers had run afoul of the captain and his punishment taking over Rasputin’s guard duty for the rest of the trip.

Faldyra spoke a little along the way. She was very excited to get to Castle Inverness. Everyone on the side trek thought it was a very good idea for Brother Splintershield to cast a ritual on the ruins of castle they were to call home especially after they heard the castle’s moniker, The Ghost Tower of Inverness.

Most of Faldyra’s life has been spent in scholarly pursuits, so when she saw a brilliant sample of Carrion Vine from the Feywild she was much more excited to investigate it than scared of its deadly properties. Luckily, her guardians could tell the long barbed and thorny vines that quickly unfurled from the bulbs meant business.

Despite being surrounded by the bulbs and several members of the group entangled by vines at one moment or another during the fight, the party emerged victorious in short order. After almost being choked to death, Faldyra seemed sheepish at not recognizing the threat and appealed to the party’s “humanity” to spare her the embarrassment of telling Malgram exactly what happened.

Most of the party took things in stride, but Niveus the Mage was displeased at the entirety of the situation. He is the type that enjoys a little more in the way of specifics on possible dangers they face. Niveus seems convinced that the leaders of this expedition know what perils they face but are keeping it from them for some reason. He is now convinced that there is something at the castle that aims to possess members of the caravan since Faldyra was getting samples of Blek tree bark that had moss growing on it. As everyone knows that is used in a vaccine thought to help prevent possession.

Behind the Screen - This session’s title was “Wandering Monsters” which was basically what it was, but the design of this encounter made it seem a lot less thrown in like wandering monsters usually feel. Last week’s adventure had an impact on what the characters would face this week although the players did not know it at the time. Last week there was some discussion as to which path to take. It turns out the forest path was more likely to lead to a carnivorous plant from the Feywild and the mountain side would probably send a pack of drakes against the party. To add a hint of complexity, no matter which direction they chose, there was have been a small chance that a clutch of goblins would attack the party. These encounters were all the same difficulty, but with very different feels. Secretly I was glad that our group ended up going in the forest direction since the solo vine trap seemed much more fun to run.

With the nature of encounters it is very difficult to have player decisions effect storyline in a broad way without things getting unwieldy. At least this encounter provided slight variation in player experiences.
Another positive difference in this season is how information is disseminated to the characters. Instead of week one being a huge info dump and then a series of encounters until they get to the chapter finale, the characters get information in a way that feels more organic. There was time during this gaming session for the characters to get to know Faldyra and more importantly, a chance to reward players for that interaction with XP.

Unfortunately for my group I got a little too involved with playing Faldyra as a hippy chick that some of her particular background didn’t get revealed, but I was glad to have the opportunity to concentrate on one NPC for this encounter. Plus, now I have additional info to float out to the party sometime after they get to the castle.

Going into this session I felt the encounter was well designed for a five player group. Luckily we got additional players this week so our table looked like this: three 4E vets, one knowledgeable player and one who played only his second session of 4E that week. Before the encounter I had even decided that the pods would be able to burrow around the map and all eight pods would not be visible at once. I thought that would be enough of a leveling agent for the encounter. It wasn’t enough; they made mincemeat out of that plant. Even with the encounter modifications and at least four actions being lost due to grabs the combat never got to round four.

I felt especially bad that one of the newcomers to Encounters never got to make an attack. I think from here on out I will err on the side of overwhelming force. This week the DM learned that Essentials characters can pour out some damage.

Remember to add your recap to the comments section by Monday at 9am EST. The most interesting recap (as judged by PGM staff) will win 2 Fortune Card booster packs!