2nd Session

The party decided to trek back into the vast marsh to find the lost tomb. They re-equipped a little and resupplied, then headed out.

They spent a total of 4 days and nights wandering about almost aimlessly, as they kept getting lost and back-tracking. They are considering returning to town to find a guide and Ruby is starting to believe there is a magical force at work preventing them from getting near the area where the tomb lies.

The first day out they ran afoul of a giant poisonous snake, but managed to slay the beast in three rounds of fighting. Drisnir got hit twice but made his save both times, healing had him back to full efficiency for the next day. They decided to butcher the snake and add it to their rations. I ruled that they could stuff themselves with snake meat and drop to 1/2 ration use for 3 days before the rest of the snake went bad.

Third day out they got the same giant poisonous snake encounter again, only at greater range and with fewer hit points. They were alert and unsurprised and got 2 rounds of shots at it while it closed. It's morale broke on the 2nd round and it attempted to flee, the party hit it with more arrows and sling stones killing it before it could get away. Then they butchered it for the extra rations.

Fourth day out just after dusk a hobgoblin patrol ran into them and attempted to stealthily move in on their camp, but they screwed up and got spotted by the ever alert Sister Celeste. I rolled 1d6+2 for Hobgoblins and decided that they would have 1d4 Bugbears with them since the loss of an entire patrol last week, they got 8 Hobgoblins and 4 Bugbears- not good for the party, but I had decided to let the dice fall where they may. The HP totals were about average for them, slightly to the low, but I figured swamp living probably isn't doing them any favors either.

The party actually surprised them and got shots off (to absolutely no avail), then won initiative and Sister Brangwen and Drisnir lobbed flaming oil both hitting and killing a Hobgoblin each (with Drisneer also slightly scorching one Bugbear)and Sister Celeste or Ruby wounding another Hobgoblin with missile fire. The enemy closed with the party.

Next round Sister Brangwen and Drisnir closed with the enemy and started laying the smack down, then got surrounded and started getting hurt. Sister Celeste cast bless managing to get herself, Sister Brangwen and Drisnir. Brangwen got knocked down, but was healed by Celeste and back up the next round. Drisnir got dropped a round or so later while Celeste and Brangwen were fighting back to back. The round after that Ruby fell to a hard hit from a Bugbear. Maybe 5 or 6 rounds (and a couple of wound ally critical fumbles on the part of the Hobgoblin patrol) after that Celeste and Brangwen managed to break the morale of the last Hobgoblin standing and he managed to get away. Tough bastards, they refused to break no matter how hard they got hit, I figure the last guy escaped to tell the rest of the tribe what they were up against.

I house ruled in that we used 3e style stabilize and both Drisnir and Ruby made it. Additionally, it is a house rule that a character has negative HP=1/2CON(rounded up)+1 before death. I also have been house ruling in healing kits with some non-magic healing stuff in them, I give 3 uses of 1d4 healing in the kits and 10 uses of 1 hp "first aid". I feel this frees clerics from the role of field medic and lets them use spells other than cure light wounds. I also rule that the gods don't really like their clerics to take multiple instances of spells. So the healing kits, while they are not particularly helpful at higher levels, are very helpful to low levels in keeping them alive and extending their time in the field.

We broke after this fight, I gave out XP, they divided the cash take and we watched Doctor Who.