D&D Encounters: The War of Everlasting Darkness - Session 1

Great session of Dungeons and Dragons Encounters this morning.

Had four players show up. One of which had never played an RPG before and one who hadn't played D&D since AD&D.

Got a ton done. Characters met up in a hunting lodge where they overheard rumors of ghost sightings in the town. After calming down the locals somewhat and getting some leads they decided to wait for the ghost to appear and follow it. Rumors were that it was travelling from the town to the ruins of Methergist every night.

The rumors appeared to be true as they followed the ghostly paladin through the woods. The group took a side track when the overheard voices in the woods. Investigating they found orcs from two rival tribes meeting with a Drow emissary. After stealthily listening in to hear about an impending attack on a nearby town they group ambushed the orcs. As the drow disappeared into the darkness the orcs were quickly dispatched and the group hurried to catch up to the ghost.

Arriving at the ruins of Methergist the party found that a rival group was already here. Figuring them to be tomb robbers the party ambushed the group. The fight was quick with two human hirelings taken out quickly and the more capable looking Dwarf and Elf taken hostage. After a lot of rather amusing roleplay it was decided the Dwarf and Elf would join the group in exploring the ruins for a 25% cut of any treasure found.

The ruins proved to be a small dungeon. Traps were found, the rival party was abused and left the dungeon (players tried to use them as hirelings from AD&D and use them as meat shields and trap finders and they would have none of it, aka some more good roleplay moments). A statue was found, the Tears of Helm were found, some Infernal Braziers were extinguished and the group banished an Imp by guessing what it was and what it's name was.

Then a rift opened in the ground and webs of darkness shot into the sky. The adventure ended with the group staring upwards as first the moon was blotted out then all the starts. The War of Eternal Darkness has begun.

The most impressive part to me was the fact we did all of this in 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons in about an hour and a half. That's unprecedented for Encounters. Their goal to try out the feel and some of the rules for D&D Next seems to be really paying off.