Investigation, Exploration and Faction Play - Going Beyond Combat in D&D

Our last session was a blast, I am running a new campaign world, Xiombal, and a bunch of new classes. Sometimes we have a session that has no combat, Friday’s session was one of those. There was exploration, investigation, stealth, but no fighting. The crew loved it.

The party has hired on as mercenaries to help protect a settlement (Fort Maegar) on a new continent. This continent is overrun with dinosaurs and giant sized animals, there is no indigenous population. It is being settled by humans and aaracockra

The tone of this campaign is different, rather than just being dungeon delvers, the party’s fate and interests are tied to this settlement they are protecting. Rather than them being free agents who wander around, they have something to protect and build from day one.

So far the party has managed to pinch the loot from a chimera’s lair without fighting it, and slain a vodyani (an underwater umber hulk) that was hunting fishermen from the Fort. This has managed to ingratiate them with the fishermen at the settlement. 

This past session they decided to do some information gathering. So far they have found two monsters near the fort (the chimera and the vodyanoi) that are “unnatural”, e.g. created in sorcerer’s laboratories. So they are concerned there is a powerful sorcerer nearby

Last session they were told that some of the locals have been having vivid, terrifying nightmares of tentacled horrors, fish men and vast underground caverns. They spoke with several of those people today and gathered as much information as they could about the nightmares.

They decided that the underground caverns in the nightmares might be nearby, so they hunted around the area for a few hours, but found no entrance to a cave complex, so they left that idea behind for now. They then returned to the keep and gossiped with the soldiers

One of them told the party a rumor, there are packs of dinosaurs that roam this continent, several times over the last few months a large pack of these dinos has assaulted the Fort, they can’t climb the walls, but they charge in waves and have caught and killed settlers

One of the soldiers thought he saw humans in the background flushing out the dinos and sending them to the fort. Their commander doesn’t believe them, but the party decided to investigate. They spoke to the commander and persuaded him to help them out

One of the new classes I have introduced for this campaign setting is the slayer, a combination of assassin and ranger. The commander of the fort’s troops is a dinosaur slayer, so he knows their habits and how to hunt them. He and the party set out on foot to find a dinosaur run

Before they left they asked me if the slayer could convey any important knowledge about the dinosaurs, seeing as he was an expert in slaying them. I pondered this for a moment, and decided I would roll a d4 and that would be the number of helpful things the slayer would convey

The dinosaur was a deinonychus,

I rolled a 4, and I made up four things about them on the spot:

1. When they run in packs their claws tear up the ground, so if you can find ground torn up by claws you can find a deinonychus run, and track it back or forward to the pack

2. They have extremely good hearing, you won’t surprise them unless they are moving and making noise, and even then it is hard

3. They only move around when hunting, so you can always follow them at a distance back to their lair when the hunting ends.

4. They sleep during daylight hours in the open at the edge of forests

They set out to find the dinosaurs and hopefully any people who were involved with them.  They travelled for 3 hours (with appropriate wandering monster checks) and eventually found a pack of deinonychus sleeping by the edge of a large forest.

They decided to sneak around the long way, to avoid being seen or heard by the dinos, which was a 2 hour detour if they wanted to ensure they would be unseen and unheard. They talked about this for a while, as there are random encounter checks that make “taking too much time” a risk

They eventually decided to go for it, and they made their way around in a large circle to double back towards the dinos but through the forest. As they got closer I decided that there was a camp in the woods where the bandits were located. It ends up there were bandits directing the dinos

So I had both sides roll for surprise, the party gained surprise, and I told them there was noise up ahead and that they could see what looked like an encampment ahead through the trees. They could attack with surprise, or leave and report back to the settlement… 

They decided to do some scouting before moving in. The party thief (an aarakocra) flew up above the trees and then down into them again near the encampment. I had him roll a move silently roll and a hide in shadows roll to see if he could make the move without being noticed.

He was successful. He asked what he could see and hear, I told him he could see about 20 soldiers, three large dragon-like mounts (called "gekkals", pictured above, no wings), firepits and several tents. The men were gambling, sharpening swords, talking. The thief asked if he could hear conversations

I told him he would have to move in closer. So he did so, and I had him roll a move silently to do so without being noticed. He failed that roll, but since he was up in the trees and partially obscured from view, I had him roll a hide in shadows to see if he would be spotted.

He made that roll and went undetected. He then listened in to the conversations below. I decided I would make up 4 things he heard, and I would ask them to suggest two topics that they heard people talking about, and I would fill in the details for those two topics

My four things:

1. the men were tired of being here hiding for so long 

2. they were finding the hunting for food dangerous but prolific

3. some of them thought the sorcerer in the camp was using dark magic behind their backs

4. they had been here for 3 months 

Then they asked me about two topics: how do they control the dinosaurs, and who do they work for? I “filled in” these topics with two events. First I had the thief overhear an exchange between the sorcerer (who emerged from a tent) and a soldier (who stopped the sorcerer)

The soldier had a large, fresh scar on his face, and he asked the sorcerer what to do when the dinos were hungry and got aggressive. The sorcerer responded by reminding him that when the dinos got difficult they should use a torch to influence them, not strike them in any way, as they were trained with fire. The sorcerer complained that the men have been resorting to striking the creatures and it wasn’t working. So now the party knew that the sorcerer had used the dino’s fear of fire to train them. The answer to the “who do they work for” question came from a conversation between two soldiers complaining about how long they had been here. 

The second question was answered when two of the men at the mounts commented on the fact that their “employer” was enjoying his wealthy life back in Raet, a city-state on one of the three inhabited continents.

Then the thief asked if there were any symbols or crests on any of the mercenaries. My guys are getting to the point after 7 years of play that they are starting to figure out good questions to ask. I thought about it, and since the lizard men who were funding the bandits wanted to be anonymous it was unlikely, so I opted for a roll. I rolled whether or not there would be any symbols of their employer anywhere. I gave it a 20% chance, and rolled a 15. So I decided that the bandits wore no symbols or crests, but that the saddles on the mounts had crests that were only visible to the riders. Since the aaracokra has remarkable vision, I decided he spotted the crests, a black crow on a red shield.

At that point I told him that if he stayed any longer he would have to roll hide in shadows again, and he decided to leave. He had to make a surprise roll to sneak off quietly, if that didn’t work he would have to roll a move silently roll. I allow thieves to do this to improve their chances, as thief skill values are fairly low in 1e. He was successful and went back to the group in the forest.

Now, as it happens, another one of the party members rolled heraldry as a skill. Everyone had forgotten about it. He asked if he knew that particular crest. Honestly, it was completely up to me at that point, even having heraldry as a skill, whether or not he would know one crest from the thousands on the various noble families of the city states was pretty up in the air. So I decided to make it a saving throw versus spells, a go to save for intelligence based skills IMC. He made the save! So I told him it was the Shakarn family, a prominent lizard man family from Raet.

So now they had a major piece of campaign lore, that there were powerful lizard-men who were trying to sabotage new human settlements on the continent. I had spoken with the group before we started the campaign and asked if they wanted a more “political” game with more intrigue and higher level plots. They said they did, so I deliberately left some seeds in the game. 

So at that point they had to decide what to do. That led to a long conversation, they considered a bunch options, from attacking by surprise to just leaving. Then one of them had a brilliant idea, he suggested that they pour oil and start a fire, the fire would spook the dinos and drive them off, and then in the confusion they could rout the soldiers. 

The dinos were sleeping by the edge of the forest, the camp was about 100 feet in to the trees. They decided to set the fire off the end of the camp and in the forest between the camp and the dinos. It was a bold plan, I would have to decide if the bandits noticed the fire before it became large enough to spook the dinos. And they would have to avoid detection. The party aarakocra thief was chosen to pour the oil and light it. As it happens he’s a crow, dark black in color, and he had a good chance of hiding in the dark forest.

So he made his move, flying above the trees (I rolled to see if any of the hunters from the camp were out and returning when he flew above, but it came up negative). So he flew down to a spot about 100’ from the camp. I made him roll a surprise roll, that failed. Then he had to roll a move silently roll, which he failed, and a hide in shadows, which he failed.

So a bandit spotted him. I decided to roll to see what the bandit would do, attack, shout out and then attack, call for allies, that sort of thing. I used an encounter reaction roll, and obtained a 98%. That made things interesting. Why would a bandit be positive about an intruder? Well, that’s when I got creative. Lizard men don’t like avians, particularly aarakocra, so why would a noble lizard man family have a crow on their crest?

I decided that this particular family used aarakocra fliers as couriers and agents, and that they are working against human settlements on the new continent as they are allied with the aarakocra (who are also settling the continent). So the guard expected aarakocra to fly to the camp. As a matter of fact, this particular guard had a contact back home that sent an aarakocra scout to bring him a package. It ends  up he wants to leave the camp, and his contact was to send gems to the guard so he could bribe the camp sorcerer (gems are components for spells and scroll writing) to let him leave sooner. So he was expecting an aarakocra courier with gems. 

So the guard walks over to the thief quietly, not yelling, not taking out his weapon. 

The thief player was at a loss, why wasn’t this guy shouting, or attacking?

The guard arrives at the thief and speaks,

“We need to make this fast, do you have the package?”

I was just about howl.

Then one of my guys reminded me of why my players are such badasses.

The thief responded, “Tell me what the package is, so I know you are my contact, all you humans look the same to me.”

That was brilliant role playing.

So I decided to roll an encounter reaction roll to see if the bandit would respond or not, and I got a neutral but disposed to positive, which rolled as a positive. So he told the thief he was to be given gems. The thief had three gems on him, as it happened, he had the most wealth of any of the party members. He wasn’t sure how many gems the bandit was expecting, so he gave him all his gems, a 200gp, 400gp and 600gp gem.

I decided that this was sufficient to convince the bandit that this was his package. The bandit took the gems and left quietly back to the camp. 

They couldn’t believe their luck. This is why I use encounter reaction rolls rather than just having everyone attack. It makes for rich role play and adds some depth to the world.

So the thief then waited until he saw the bandit go into a tent, and then set about pouring the oil (three flasks) and setting it afire, then flying away. 

That’s where we broke for the session, after 2 hours of play.

When they get back I will roll to see how it all shakes out, and they will likely fight the bandits during their disarray. 

I’m tracking factions and interactions between the party members and the NPCs at the fort, as the campaign unfolds they may find themselves in opposition to the fort’s leadership, and having allies on the inside can make a difference. 

This was a super exciting session, they had to ask questions, gather information, plan out their moves and use stealth to get in close. They learned a ton about the game world (some of which I made up on the spot!) and spent a lot of time talking tactics. So much of this isn’t covered by explicit rules, the time they spend talking about what to do, gathering information that didn’t have any immediate use but contributed to knowing more about the lore of the game world. And they avoided direct conflict, which given their level and HP is a good idea.

This game is turning into a direction I wasn’t expecting, and they are clearly loving it, as they have asked to play weekly, and when we cancelled the game scheduled on Father’s day they asked to play the next day, and on Friday of that week (we play Fri - Mon - Fri - Mon), four days later. 

They are all in, and it makes the game a joy to run.