Sailing Across the Inner Sea

As promised here is the immediately 2nd post of the First Session.

As the "party" arrives in Puotii, they completely ignore the town and go straight to the docks.

As a DM this is both frustrating and awesome. I have given them their quest, and they are on a straight line to its accomplishment. Everyone is on the rails, and the story is progressing. But at the same time they are completely ignoring the world around them, which took me over a year to create. Well you can't have it all.

So they go straight to the docks, meet their Captain, whose name they didn't care to take the time to learn, and they boarded the ship, The Midnight Run, that would take them across the Inner Sea.

The ship itself was quite awesome, pure white sails, and a wooden exterior painted as dark as the sea at night. I was excited when someone actually asked me to describe it as it has a backstory, but after the brief description the "party" immediately moved on to other things.

Halfway through the trip there was a massive storm. A good first chance for the party to get some teamwork bonding going. Of course the The Machageer had to refuse the Captain's request of help during the storm, and thus went below decks to his state room. The rest of the party however helped out the Captain and the crew of The Midnight Run. Tariel and Namsuri  helping on deck, as the Raistlin assisted the ship's mage prepare spell components. During the storm Tariel was swept overboard, and Namsuri saved him by throwing him a rope. (Good reflex saves all around) Unfortunately as the crew was helping pull Tariel back aboard they all failed the perception checks, and the entire crew and the "party" were ambushed by pirates.

Of course at this point The Machageer was below decks, and such had to wait one round before he could make a perception check to hear the combat over the storm. Then had to take his entire second round on getting up onto the main deck before he could join the combat.

It really in my opinion is a great first combat for a new party. Plenty of allies to give flanking, plenty of targets for them to test all of their offensive capabilities. Not rolling for any of the pirates or crew that are not in the immidiate area of the party allows me to juggle the difficulty of the encounter on the fly, if the party begins to lose the crew does better, if they are rolling over the pirates, the crew doesn't fair as well and they have to deal with the bulk of the attackers.
[There it was folks, DM Eraser's first DM Hint, stay tuned for more]

The keynote of the fight is the Captain of The Midnight Run, a Male Half-Orc with an amazing backstory the party never bothered to learn, fighting against the Minotaur Fighter who is the captain of the pirate vessel.

This is strictly a fluff background to the battle as the true fighting rages on the main deck, the PC's catch glimpses of the epic battle between captains happening right next to the wheel on the quarterdeck. I am a big fan of adding background to fight scenes, it keeps it from becoming the players talking out of character to each other and sitting around waiting for their turn to beat something. It gives them something to focus on, something to tie them to what is going on and an attempt to draw them into the illusion of the story you are trying to produce.
[There it is folks DM Hint #2, two in one post, am I awesome, ....yes...yes I am!]

During the fighting Raistlin had started the encounter inside the mages study. He was interrupted in his spell component preperations as the mage stumbled in, white robes stained with blood as the wound to his chest bleed profusely. Handing over a key to Raistlin he then dies in his arms. At this point, looking through the open door, Raistlin spots a pirate and skewers him with a magic missile which knocks him overboard into the torrent of storm swept waters.

Always remember, just because there is a battle going on is not a reason to stop throwing out plot hooks. In fact it might be the perfect time. You know you have everyone's attention for one, and anything that happens during combat that is non-combat related always looks that much more epic just because the fighting is going on in the background.
[DM Hint #3]
Also, just because a NPC runs out of hit points doesn't have to mean he drops to the ground right where he stood. In a situation such as the storm, and the rolling deck of the ship, use a NPC death as a chance to once again reinforce where the players are, and the situation they are in, this WILL increase your players enjoyment of the game, even if they never realize it.
[DM Hint #4, Four hints in one post, Godly? You decide]

Finally finishing off the pirates, and as the last pirate drops the Half-Orc Captain finishing his opponent as well, the crew cleans the mess from the deck and the "party" gets there first taste of loot.

I really didn't think describing this session would take this long. In my effort to keep these on the shorter side I will leave it here.....and immediately start on post #3

-Eraser